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Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Taking Stock With Pimm Fox 20140527

creating artificial reefs. we will speak to the owner. , edible cups for your summer beverages. that and more over the next hour. let's get the headlines from carol massar. is eliminating hundreds of u.s. jobs well shrinking its business. this is according to people familiar with the matter. the moves are part of a plan to reduce assets and u.s. operations ahead of the rule that would require banks to bring in more capital. producerorld's largest is making a bid for hill scheier. -- hillshire. they are offering $45 a share will stop it is contingent on an agreement to acquire another food group. back to you. >> thank you carol massar. back from a surprise trip to afghanistan, president obama said that the job for the united states is done there. the military presence will be almost nonexistent. joining us from washington is phil mattingly. he has more details. what are the details about the u.s. role in afghanistan? >> with the president laid out today is the wind down the strategy will stop military officials and u.s. officials have stated that 2014 is the end day. u.s. troops will no longer be in afghanistan. that is not quite true. there will be a residual force of 9800 individuals. they will stay there through january 1. they will stay there through the end of the year. then they will be cut in half. what the president said today that while american troops are for u.s.e, a new role forces exist in the country. >> america's combat mission will be over. next her, afghans will be fully responsible for securing their country. will be in annnel advisory role. we will no longer patrol afghan cities or towns, mountain valleys. it is a task for the afghan people. >> one thing to note is that the president did say that will troops will remain in 2014 and 2015, but by 2016, the expectation is that the only group of individuals there will be a small security force. no troops past 2016. >> can anything happened to change this plan? >> a couple things. there's one topline it is a big concern. the newthis happens if afghan president does not sign a bilateral security agreement. hamid karzai is inclined to sign it. they are waiting for the two individuals who are in the runoff of the presidential election. those individuals in the runoff have said that they will sign up stop that should be good to go. the other thing is if the situation on the ground changes. the u.s. has reduced those troops in half will stop if the situation gets worse, there's a chance that they will stay in the country. >> this comes a day before it is expected to be a big foreign-policy speech by the president at the u.s. military academy in west i. any preview of what we will get? >> the officials i have spoken to are pointing to that speech as their best opportunity to lay out conclusively what the administration's foreign policy is. afghanistan plays a role in that. we will hear the president say that the work is the united states an opportunity where they need to intervene in certain areas like syria. i have the money and the capacity to do so. it is not an interventionist foreign policy. they do not feel like they have to go into countries and rebuild them. -- the president has received a lot of criticism about his foreign-policy. they hope that he will be allowed to put a coherent narrative together about his foreign-policy and white is effective. >> i want to thank you very much. phil mattingly, from washington. i want to stay with foreign policy for a moment. ukraine's government is facing significant losses in the east will stop the president-elect valid to wipe out the separatist. correspondent joins me in the art. let's talk about your trip to ukraine. what did you see? >> i spent a few days in the city that you mentioned. the fighting was beginning to kick off. that has gotten significantly worse will stop there is a huge aerial bombardment by the army on these positions. they have been taking up by the air force. well i was there, the new ukrainian president seems to have felt that he can launch these attacks. the ukrainian army was holding back on a certain level. that has been a big change. >> is that because of the election results? >> he had a clear mandate. there was nothing that had been plaguing the interim administration. i think the military felt that it had the support of a new that you ares city describing, tell us where it is in the country. give us a little tour. sk is one of two provinces in the east of ukraine. it is part of a separatist republic. they are predominantly russian. there are other big countries around. you have three main gateways to europe. one of the big issues for ukraine is over the gap with russia. that is something i got a chance to look at. >> ukraine's presidential elections may solve one major problem with stop a new president will face several serious challenges, including a contentious gas dispute with russia. >> speaking simply. >> he recently took over the state owns gas company. he gets all his gaffes from a russian energy giant. they have recently doubled their prices. leaders say that it is unreasonable. it like having conversations with them about price? >> it is not constructive. there are no results. >> be called six involve the aging storage facilities and ukraine's internal divisions. they have a shared soviet past. >> the fighting may be taking place in the east, but in the peaceful west of ukraine, there is an economic and political dispute will stop it is focused on gas pipelines that are crucial to europe. 112 billion cubic meters of gas. around three quarters continue on to europe. the remaining amount is used to mask that way. natural gas they earn billions forollars, but it also pays domestic gas needs. that is where higher prices will hurt. most of it is in the united states. tariffs. pay they are fixed. >> here's the problem. the ukrainian currently has fallen. when gas companies demand payment in dollars, people get squeezed. the russian prime minister said that that is not russia's problem. >> they are trying to get their debts repaid. they receive the repayment of the debt. >> the debt currently stands at 3.5 billion u.s. dollars. there is another 1.6 billion at stake next week. sometimes it is very efficient leverage. you can use it on a consumer. it is dependent on a large supply. >> the issue is simple. russians are the only gig in town. the ukrainian leadership has no choice but to deal with and buy from them. >> a little more on ukraine. you have this travel around the country. if you go to a western part of ukraine, it does not look as if anything is amiss. >> in the western portion of town, it is right on the border with slovakia. it is very peaceful. it is 1000 miles away. you get to see what a huge country ukraine is. you have these aerial attacks. the city has a beautiful life. people have no concerns about stability or violence. it is a country that is split down the middle between east and west. kiev is easterly? >> it is pretty central. that city itself has gone through a lot of violence. it is now very calm. we met tourists having dinner there. they were surprised to see the barriers from the protest a few months back. >> how about the freedom of travel? had problems, but you can take trains. there are no travel restrictions. there are no visa requirements. >> a holidaying crimea? >> i don't know about that. >> coming up, are you looking to fly in a private jet for the cost of a coach ticket? you will find out how they fly as many times a month as they want on a private jet. you can take less than $2000. we will find out and i will speak with a man who is creating artificial limbs to make your snorkeling getaways more exciting. ♪ >> according to one research report, 30% of the world's aircraft are owned by certain companies. if you are looking to capitalize on this, surfair. a california airline that offers all you can fly for $2000. welcome jeff porter. tell us about surfair. where'd you find? >> good afternoon. out of anthe bay area airport called san carlos and would like to four different point. santa barbara, hawthorne, burbank, and tahoe. it is simple. you give the sales pitch. month, you can fly as much as you want between those points. >> you talked about backers of the program and how it came to be. >> with my background in aviation, i ran a membership club. initiallyounder thought of this, i kicked myself. he had the vision. we went from there. it was simply about the matter of convenience. economic convenience and low stress travel. as you might suspect, between those points that i mentioned, there is a lot of travel. have created a non-stress travel experience. service private terminals. you can arrive 15 minutes prior to departure time. they know you by name. the crew and the pilots help you with the luggage. off you go. convenience, of you are receiving anywhere from two or three hours. we are very much focused on those people. that is part of this. the aircraft equipment will stop it is swiss made. is a turboprop aircraft. it is fast, safe, reliable stop it is quiet. our interior seating is executive seating. the front four seats face each other. what is interesting about this business model is the sense of community. i happen to be one of those wi-fi guys. when you close that question to our current membership, and we have 600 members, most of them say, no. we do not want wi-fi. we want interaction with other members. reservation, the mobile application. you can book a reservation and 30 seconds. you can opt in and allow other members to see you. they get to interact of each other. >> where do you want to find that? do you have plans for las vegas? >> we do. waiting for government approval to fly to las vegas. our primary focus is in the southwest. it is more in california. there's not an infinite number. we have developed our five-year plan. we are now going through the process of deciding what that looks like. we are starting the process to take an additional aircraft. >> thank you for joining us. jeff porter, the chief executive of surfair. coming up on "taking stock," thinking ships will stop we will find out how they can actually help the environment. that is next on "taking stock." ♪ >> getting rid of old automobiles, it sounds like an environmental headache. cases, a few single jump into the water, it can provide an environmental and economic benefit will stop joining us to discuss the business of artificial reefs is dave walter. he is the founder and owner of walter marine. david, explain what it is about making an artificial reef that can change the natural habitat? >> in the gulf of mexico, we have flat, sandy desert on him. -- bottom. if you put something there, it creates a habitat for bottom-dwelling fish. we have proven that it actually creates an environment. we use those in a variety of scenarios. fishing reef, snorkeling reef, oyster reefs. we have several different models. they are used for different purposes. >> can you describe in terms of the scale these different rates? how they can they get? >> we make them anywhere from about three feet tall up to 20 feet tall. we make them out of concrete and limestone rock. rock isida limestone the perfect age for marine life. every animal that lives on a natural reef can live on our manufactured race. -- reff. >> are they expected to make? directharge about 1700 -- $1700. that includes everything. we have different types of race. -- reefs. we have public reefs as an alabama we have a private reef. it is for individual fishermen. we do a lot of those. they cannot own it, but the location a secret. we have a 1200 mile square area. walter, can you describe the process of deploying these artificial reefs? vessel.ve a it is an old coast guard vessel. we converted it to do reefs. we can carry six of these 6000 pound reefs at one time. we can deploy one every three minutes. we go out with the vessel. we stop the locations and use the gps coordinates. we drop into the barn and release it. >> go ahead. ships.lso do i have done 14 ships. that may be the most anybody else has done. we do a ship for divers. we sometimes want to locate an old ship. we will find some government entity that wants to buy it all stop maybe the community will come together and put some money together to buy the ship. we will take that out of sync it as well. >> one of the most recent thinking involved a ship. >> i found the ship in miami. i brought it to alabama, thinking i might sell it all stop but when i came in to alabama, people sought and they were lined up along the canal. they were cheering us on as we came in. someone put it on facebook. the community came together and formed a foundation and raise half $1 million to sink the ship. sister has a's restaurant and she put up most of the money. they named it "the lulu." lulu buffett, weekly advance on a bar. since we do not use explosives to sink our ships because it might damage see life, we allowed everybody to get up close and personal. we were able to sink it. >> thank you for sharing your story. david walter, walter marine. ♪ this is "taking stock." a look at the market moving headlines. >> thank you pam. imm. donald sterling has agreed to let his wife take over the club. bank of america has been retained to handle the sale will stop that is according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. selling the club was going to lead to a potential legal battle that an nba. pimco said executive is returning to the firm as a chief economist. he was previously the head of one of their group; the -- and left. brooklyn's economy outpaced new york city. the number drops in brooklyn grew 20%. that is a look at some of the headlines. back to you. >> thank you carol massar. a new biodegradable cup is called loliware. it won a jell-o mold competition. as ants are made alternative to disposable cups. andunder chelsea briganti director of sales jennifer love join me now. great to have you both here. >> we are so excited. >> what exactly -- this is an edible cup. >> it is a collection of biodegradable and edible cups. we have for you a little drink. with a springtime lemonade mint in a citrus cup. the cup is truly biodegradable. biodegradable products are sometimes -- they do not biodegrade properly. they have bpa. , vegan, is bpa-free all-natural. it is a replacement. >> gluten-free? >> everything. >> let's start with this idea. you enter a contest. chelsea enters a contest and they use the jell-o mold concept as a material. not as a food itself. when you first heard about this, what did you think? them a few months ago. i love what they are up to. one of the most exciting things is that it is responsible business. it is working to be sustainable and ethical. i think one of the most thrilling things about loliware from an advisor and investor standpoint is that loliware is poised to be the complete beverage experience. >> you drink the drink and udp cup? >> and there's nothing left over. >> we go on kick starter and we raised over $10,000. we received incredible demand from 35 countries. >> vale lobbies? >> they want because. they want to replace plastic cups. we are talking to one of the world's largest companies. >> you may know who they are. >> how you make this? >> right now they are made a commercial kitchen. they are made by my cofounder and i. we are poised to go national and we are looking for a manufacturing is still it will stop right now they are handmade in new york city. >> it is a mold? >> wheezy is detected and now we use avatar -- we used to use pectin and now we use agar. it is the perfect cup will stop that's it goes away. how much does it cost? >> a four pack is $11.95. we are selling old cups to food service and weddings. it is an $80 million industry. we are selling to a lot of people. >> these are flexible. they feel like they might leak. but they don't. >> they hold their shape for 48 hours. >> are the best of the are cap cold? >> it depends on the type of drink you are serving. the drink in the cup will be cold. >> there is a sticky quality to it. your hand is admitting he. >> that is an interesting point about what loliware can do. it is a delivery vehicle for flavoring or for a functional food. >> our dream is to create cups for marathon runners and athletes with vitamins and minerals during the marathon. there is a tremendous amount of waste. >> you could replace the plastic cups. after a marathon, no waste. that is an incredible idea. >> you need to drink it as quickly as you eat it. there is a funny aspect to this. it does not have that gelatinous texture. quentin has a soft texture. it is similar to late whistle are -- >> and have a soft sector. it is similar to a twizzler. >> it can be customized? >> that's right. different colors and different flavors. >> what is your plan, to roll this out? need to raise $1.5 million to launch it in a big way. >> we have taken a look at the numbers would be sales channels that we focus on. weddings, corporate events. the beverage industry alone, the alcohol industry, it is an $800 billion industry. >> you mentioned google and disney. >> and ikea. >> they want to sell them or use them? >> they want to use them to replace plastic cups. that is our vision for loliware. >> we are focused on retail as well. are focused on that particular sales channel. >> any competition? >> we have patents pending. there are candy cane cups. from: --ok at the eyes the ice cream cone, it is an experience. environmental projects -- products that change and experience. pointyou bring up this that the biodegradable products are biodegradable, but it does need to go somewhere. >> what people do not know is that they contain a chemical to help them do great. naturally in the material, but they add another material to help them biodegrade. is truly biodegradable because it is edible. is biodegradable and is edible will stop the future of packaging and disposables is edible. >> what to do to invent this? >> amy trained industrial designer. we always had interest in the environment. loliware is being promoted by the center for social innovation. a we look at loliware as material that can create anything across functional food. packaging and developing water bottles. we are developing anything that can be biodegradable. >> this will take on a whole new meaning. cheers. congratulations. edible drinks, who knew? thank you very much. chelsea briganti and jennifer love. with the memorial day weather a little hot to handle, i will speak to the founder of an ice bar. it will keep you hydrated and cold. later on, the owner of a new york city jazz club talks about the popularity for jazz falling all stop this is "taking stock." ♪ >> meteorologists have forecasted that the summer will be one of the hottest on record beentop how you keep cool in a bargain is made entirely of ice? bar that is made entirely of ice? has foure bar locations throughout the united states. i am joined now by cofounder this is "taking stock" for tuesday, may 27th, 2014. -- this is "taking stock" for tuesday, .ay 27th, 2014. -- craig ling thank you very much for being here. >> it is great to be here. trajectory of starting on ice bar in new zealand. >> it started as a joke. we built a temporary ice bar for america's cup. people went crazy. we tried to take it down in three months and he continually grew and grew. we opened a second location. that group. then we outgrew ourselves in new zealand. we were very fortunate that an american company came along. they put money into the concept. it was in las vegas. we went from there and it was amazing. >> when someone walks in to a minus5 ice bar, what do they see? >> people cost perception of an ice bar is funny. they do not know what they are expecting. someone goes those in and their whole face changes. it blows them away. no one actually expects the whole place to be made of ice. we have 40-50 tons of ice. >> ice chandeliers. >> we have everything. >> ice glassware. >> all the cabinets are ice. city, we'd like to bring something from the city into the ice are. like in new york, we have images of central park. the blocks ofnto ice on the walls? >> absolutely. no matter where we are, we create something that people can talk about all stop with a nice cocktail, it blows you away. >> not only do you get to see all of this, but there is equipment. it is 23 degrees fahrenheit. >> you go through a reception area. you get a jacket which keeps you warm. you get gloves that you can throw away at the end. egon to the anteroom. -- you go into the insight room. when you are brave, you go into the ice bar. you see it all. >> this ice is brought in from canada. it is canadian ice. >> some of it is from canada, some is from the united states. we like clarity. we are fussy about the type of ice. >> did you have to educate yourself about the types of ice and make some sort of rigorous organization? >> absolutely. we have many people working for us. they are working on various attractions. we handpick the ice together. what we are going to carp, we choose it together. it takes a lot of time to get it together. we are trying to find the right thing. these guys are amazing and incredible. is not onlyar something for the public, it can be rented out all stop you could have carvings and parties. >> that's right. corporate functions are huge for us. 35% of our business. we do fortune 500 companies. we do anything. we have done full-size cars. >> and automobile carved out of ice? >> we had a carved out of ice and it was at the launch party. it blew everyone away. ice, it is can do it about the attraction of ice and what you can do with it all stop >> how long do people laugh in the ice bar? >> half an hour. 40 minutes. >> is there a particular drink that is most popular? >> we have about 12 cocktails. we have various other martinis that are popular. cocktails are standard cocktails. you can have whatever you want. >> what does it cost to put one of these together? >> $5 million from start to finish. it takes 18 months-two years. a lot goes into the backside of an ice bar. a lot of people think it is a big freezer. they think it just blows cold air, but that is far from the truth. it is $1.5 million in engineering. it took me around three years to play together. >> from australia? well done. any plans to do one in scandinavia? >> we have extension plans this year. into -- we are opening in san francisco. we will open in honolulu. in april, we will do for you. >> you will be all over the map. >> we just did a deal in florida. and the cayman islands. it is a joint venture we are doing. hopefully we will have more done in the caribbean. >> i want to thank you very much. down ling, minus5 ice bar there. coming up next, the owner of the birdland jazz club talks about the state of live music and the future of jazz in new york city will. ♪ in the 1930's and 1940's, manhattan was the center of the jazz world. , whose name was bird. closed,inal birdland but the modern one is going strong. the owner, gianni valenti, joins me now. let's talk about music for a moment. any kind of for club. what happens over the course of the last two years? >> there was a decline. in the 1960's and the 1970's, most americans turned their back on jazz. it went away to europe and asia. they werely 1980's, starting a resurgence. last five that the years have been the past five years that we have had. that is mainly due to the education process of getting our younger people involved in music. probably, young people stay away. they thought it was older people. 90 c high schools, colleges, universities. they have great music programs. birdland what we do, especially -- what we do, especially at birdland is we try to get young people involved. >> tell us about building birdland. it is based in the midtown, times square area. >> that is very interesting. i came to new york city and i went to nyu. i worked in the industry and i opened a restaurant. one afternoon, a young lady came in who happened to be there. we started chatting. parker, charlie parker's widow. the conversation went on and i was building another place nearby. she stopped in one day and said, this looks like the old birdland . we have to open up o'charley's bandstand. . had lunch with her she brought a friend of her. it was max roach. he said, we have to do this. we have to do it right. i said, i am on board. we opened up that 100 fixed rate. -- 105th street. i educated myself and try to create this is the workplace that it was. in the 1940's and 1950's. in midtown. street in time square. >> what did you expect? what would be a perfect day at birdland? >> a perfect day would be arriving around 7:30 p.m., have a great dinner, and at 8:30 p.m., wait for a show to begin. there are a number of musicians. 40 or 50 streets from you. >> any chance you will take it on the road? you have the name and history. >> is interesting. i had a recent partnership with michael feinstein. he is a dear friend. and itin the process should be open by may. there will be a new birdland. >> where will that be? >> the new space is going to be above birdland where it is now. we took the basement to create a new club for emerging artists. what is important and what i think is to keep it going. to give us the opportunity to get emerging artist. , the owner ofnti birdland. ♪ >> live from pier 3 in san francisco, welcome to "bloomberg west," where we focus on innovation, technology, and the future of business. i'm emily chang. could you soon be turning off the lights with your iphone? that might be an area that apple is looking at them and with millions getting ready, we kick off the special series of how technology is helping improve life in the great outdoors involving everything from searching, hiking, and camping good let's check on the bloomberg top headlines. qualcomm is hit by hackers. they're asking

Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Taking Stock With Pimm Fox 20140528

and loliware, edible cups for your summer beverages. that and more over the next hour. let's get the headlines from carol massar. >> rbs is eliminating hundreds of u.s. jobs well shrinking its business. this is according to people familiar with the matter. the moves are part of a plan to reduce assets and u.s. operations ahead of the rule that would require banks to bring in more capital. and the world's largest producer is making a bid for hillshire. they are offering $45 a share. it is contingent on an agreement to acquire another food group. back to you. >> thank you carol massar. back from a surprise trip to afghanistan, president obama said that the job for the united states is done there. the military presence will be almost nonexistent. joining us from washington is phil mattingly. he has more details. what are the details about the u.s. role in afghanistan? >> with the president laid out today is the wind down the strategy. military officials and u.s. officials have stated that 2014 is the end day. u.s. troops will no longer be in afghanistan. that is not quite true. there will be a residual force of 9800 individuals. they will stay there through january 1. they will stay there through the end of the year. then they will be cut in half. what the president said today that while american troops are going home, a new role for u.s. forces exist in the country. >> america's combat mission will be over. starting next her, afghans will be fully responsible for securing their country. american personnel will be in an advisory role. we will no longer patrol afghan cities or towns, mountain valleys. it is a task for the afghan people. >> one thing to note is that the president did say that will troops will remain in 2014 and 2015, but by 2016, the expectation is that the only group of individuals there will be a small security force. no troops past 2016. >> can anything happened to change this plan? >> a couple things. there's one topline it is a big concern. none of this happens if the new afghan president does not sign a bilateral security agreement. hamid karzai is inclined to sign it. they are waiting for the two individuals who are in the runoff of the presidential election. those individuals in the runoff have said that they will sign up stop that should be good to go. the other thing is if the situation on the ground changes. the u.s. has reduced those troops in half. if the situation gets worse, there's a chance that they will stay in the country. >> this comes a day before it is expected to be a big foreign-policy speech by the president at the u.s. military academy in west i. any preview of what we will get? >> the officials i have spoken to are pointing to that speech as their best opportunity to lay out conclusively what the administration's foreign policy is. afghanistan plays a role in that. we will hear the president say that the work is the united states an opportunity where they need to intervene in certain areas like syria. i have the money and the capacity to do so. it is not an interventionist foreign policy. they do not feel like they have to go into countries and rebuild them. the president has received a lot of criticism about his foreign-policy. they hope that he will be allowed to put a coherent narrative together about his foreign-policy and white is effective. >> i want to thank you very much. phil mattingly, from washington. i want to stay with foreign policy for a moment. ukraine's government is facing significant losses in the east. the president-elect valid to wipe out the separatist. our correspondent joins me in the art. let's talk about your trip to ukraine. what did you see? >> i spent a few days in the city that you mentioned. the fighting was beginning to kick off. that has gotten significantly worse. there is a huge aerial bombardment by the army on these positions. they have been taking up by the air force. well i was there, the new ukrainian president seems to have felt that he can launch these attacks. the ukrainian army was holding back on a certain level. that has been a big change. >> is that because of the election results? >> he had a clear mandate. there was nothing that had been plaguing the interim administration. i think the military felt that it had the support of a new chief. >> this city that you are describing, tell us where it is in the country. give us a little tour. >> donetsk is one of two provinces in the east of ukraine. it is part of a separatist republic. they are predominantly russian. there are other big countries around. you have three main gateways to europe. one of the big issues for ukraine is over the gap with russia. that is something i got a chance to look at. >> ukraine's presidential elections may solve one major problem. a new president will face several serious challenges, including a contentious gas dispute with russia. >> speaking simply. >> he recently took over the state owns gas company. he gets all his gaffes from a russian energy giant. they have recently doubled their prices. leaders say that it is unreasonable. >> what is it like having conversations with them about price? >> it is not constructive. there are no results. >> be called six involve the aging storage facilities and ukraine's internal divisions. they have a shared soviet past. >> the fighting may be taking place in the east, but in the peaceful west of ukraine, there is an economic and political dispute. it is focused on gas pipelines that are crucial to europe. 112 billion cubic meters of gas. around three quarters continue on to europe. the remaining amount is used to mask that way. natural gas they earn billions of dollars, but it also pays for domestic gas needs. that is where higher prices will hurt. >> most of it is in the united states. consumers pay tariffs. they are fixed. >> here's the problem. the ukrainian currently has fallen. when gas companies demand payment in dollars, people get squeezed. the russian prime minister said that that is not russia's problem. >> they are trying to get their debts repaid. they receive the repayment of the debt. >> the debt currently stands at 3.5 billion u.s. dollars. there is another 1.6 billion at stake next week. >> sometimes it is very efficient leverage. you can use it on a consumer. it is dependent on a large supply. >> the issue is simple. the russians are the only gig in town. the ukrainian leadership has no choice but to deal with and buy from them. >> a little more on ukraine. you have this travel around the country. if you go to a western part of ukraine, it does not look as if anything is amiss. >> in the western portion of town, it is right on the border with slovakia. it is very peaceful. it is 1000 miles away. you get to see what a huge country ukraine is. you have these aerial attacks. the city has a beautiful life. people have no concerns about stability or violence. it is a country that is split down the middle between east and west. >> kiev is easterly? >> it is pretty central. that city itself has gone through a lot of violence. it is now very calm. we met tourists having dinner there. they were surprised to see the barriers from the protest a few months back. >> how about the freedom of travel? >> i have not had problems, but you can take trains. there are no travel restrictions. there are no visa requirements. >> a holidaying crimea? >> i don't know about that. >> coming up, are you looking to fly in a private jet for the cost of a coach ticket? you will find out how they fly as many times a month as they want on a private jet. you can take less than $2000. we will find out and i will speak with a man who is creating artificial limbs to make your snorkeling getaways more exciting. ♪ >> according to one research report, 30% of the world's aircraft are owned by certain companies. if you are looking to capitalize on this, surfair. a california airline that offers all you can fly for $2000. welcome jeff porter. tell us about surfair. where'd you find? >> good afternoon. we fly in the bay area out of an airport called san carlos and would like to four different point. santa barbara, hawthorne, burbank, and tahoe. it is simple. you give the sales pitch. for $1600 a month, you can fly as much as you want between those points. >> you talked about backers of the program and how it came to be. >> with my background in aviation, i ran a membership club. when the founder initially thought of this, i kicked myself. he had the vision. we went from there. it was simply about the matter of convenience. economic convenience and low stress travel. as you might suspect, between those points that i mentioned, there is a lot of travel. we have created a non-stress travel experience. we service private terminals. you can arrive 15 minutes prior to departure time. they know you by name. the crew and the pilots help you with the luggage. off you go. from a matter of convenience, you are receiving anywhere from two or three hours. we are very much focused on those people. that is part of this. and as >> described the aircraft equipment. it is swiss made. >> it is a turboprop aircraft. it is fast, safe, reliable stop it is quiet. our interior seating is executive seating. the front four seats face each other. what is interesting about this business model is the sense of community. i happen to be one of those wi-fi guys. when you close that question to our current membership, and we have 600 members, most of them say, no. we do not want wi-fi. we want interaction with other members. you make a reservation, the mobile application. you can book a reservation and 30 seconds. you can opt in and allow other members to see you. they get to interact of each other. >> where do you want to find that? do you have plans for las vegas? >> we do. we are waiting for government approval to fly to las vegas. our primary focus is in the southwest. it is more in california. there's not an infinite number. we have developed our five-year plan. we are now going through the process of deciding what that looks like. we are starting the process to take an additional aircraft. >> thank you for joining us. jeff porter, the chief executive of surfair. coming up on "taking stock," thinking ships. we will find out how they can actually help the environment. that is next on "taking stock." ♪ >> getting rid of old automobiles, it sounds like an environmental headache. in some cases, a few single jump into the water, it can provide an environmental and economic benefit. joining us to discuss the business of artificial reefs is dave walter. he is the founder and owner of walter marine. david, explain what it is about making an artificial reef that can change the natural habitat? >> in the gulf of mexico, we have flat, sandy desert bottom. if you put something there, it creates a habitat for bottom-dwelling fish. we have proven that it actually creates an environment. we use those in a variety of scenarios. fishing reef, snorkeling reef, oyster reefs. we have several different models. they are used for different purposes. >> can you describe in terms of the scale these different rates? how they can they get? >> we make them anywhere from about three feet tall up to 20 feet tall. we make them out of concrete and limestone rock. the florida limestone rock is the perfect age for marine life. every animal that lives on a natural reef can live on our manufactured reef. >> are they expected to make? >> we charge about $1700. that includes everything. we have different types of reefs. we have public reefs as an alabama we have a private reef. it is for individual fishermen. we do a lot of those. they cannot own it, but the location a secret. we have a 1200 mile square area. >> david walter, can you describe the process of deploying these artificial reefs? >> we have a vessel. it is an old coast guard vessel. we converted it to do reefs. we can carry six of these 6000 pound reefs at one time. we can deploy one every three minutes. we go out with the vessel. we stop the locations and use the gps coordinates. we drop into the barn and release it. >> go ahead. >> we also do ships. i have done 14 ships. that may be the most anybody else has done. we do a ship for divers. we sometimes want to locate an old ship. we will find some government entity that wants to buy it. maybe the community will come together and put some money together to buy the ship. we will take that out of sync it as well. >> one of the most recent thinking involved a ship. >> i found the ship in miami. i brought it to alabama, thinking i might sell it. but when i came in to alabama, people sought and they were lined up along the canal. they were cheering us on as we came in. someone put it on facebook. the community came together and formed a foundation and raise half $1 million to sink the ship. jimmy buffett's sister has a restaurant and she put up most of the money. they named it "the lulu." a partner with lulu buffett, weekly advance on a bar. and as since we do not use explosives to sink our ships because it might damage see life, we allowed everybody to get up close and personal. we were able to sink it. >> thank you for sharing your story. david walter, walter marine. ♪ this is "taking stock." a look at the market moving headlines. >> thank you pimm. donald sterling has agreed to let his wife take over the club. bank of america has been retained to handle the sale. that is according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. selling the club was going to lead to a potential legal battle with the nba. pimco said that an executive is returning to the firm as a chief economist. he was previously the head of one of their group and left. brooklyn's economy outpaced new york city. the number drops in brooklyn grew 20%. that is a look at some of the headlines. back to you. >> thank you carol massar. a new biodegradable cup is called loliware. it won a jell-o mold competition. the cuts are made as an alternative to disposable cups. cofounder chelsea briganti and director of sales jennifer love join me now. great to have you both here. >> we are so excited. >> what exactly -- this is an edible cup. >> it is a collection of biodegradable and edible cups. we have for you a little drink. it is a springtime lemonade with mint in a citrus cup. the cup is truly biodegradable. biodegradable products are sometimes -- they do not biodegrade properly. they have bpa. this cup is bpa-free, vegan, all-natural. it is a replacement. >> gluten-free? >> everything. >> let's start with this idea. you enter a contest. chelsea enters a contest and they use the jell-o mold concept as a material. not as a food itself. when you first heard about this, what did you think? >> i met them a few months ago. i love what they are up to. one of the most exciting things is that it is responsible business. it is working to be sustainable and ethical. i think one of the most thrilling things about loliware from an advisor and investor standpoint is that loliware is poised to be the complete beverage experience. >> you drink the drink and udp cup? >> and there's nothing left over. >> we go on kick starter and we raised over $10,000. we received incredible demand from 35 countries. >> they love this? >> they want it because they want to replace plastic cups. we are talking to one of the world's largest companies. >> you may know who they are. >> how you make this? >> right now they are made a commercial kitchen. they are made by my cofounder and i. we are poised to go national and we are looking for a manufacturing is still it. right now they are handmade in new york city. >> it is a mold? >> we used to use pectin and now we use agar. it is the perfect cup. >> it goes away. how much does it cost? >> a four pack is $11.95. we are selling old cups to food service and weddings. it is an $80 million industry. we are selling to a lot of people. >> these are flexible. they feel like they might leak. but they don't. >> they hold their shape for 48 hours. >> are the best of the are cap cold? >> it depends on the type of drink you are serving. the drink in the cup will be cold. >> there is a sticky quality to it. your hand is admitting he. >> that is an interesting point about what loliware can do. it is a delivery vehicle for flavoring or for a functional food. >> our dream is to create cups for marathon runners and athletes with vitamins and minerals during the marathon. there is a tremendous amount of waste. >> you could replace the plastic cups. after a marathon, no waste. that is an incredible idea. >> you need to drink it as quickly as you eat it. there is a funny aspect to this. it does not have that gelatinous texture. quentin has a soft texture. it is similar to a twizzler. >> it can be customized? >> that's right. different colors and different flavors. >> what is your plan, to roll this out? >> we need to raise $1.5 million to launch it in a big way. >> we have taken a look at the numbers would be sales channels that we focus on. weddings, corporate events. the beverage industry alone, the alcohol industry, it is an $800 billion industry. >> you mentioned google and disney. >> and ikea. >> they want to sell them or use them? >> they want to use them to replace plastic cups. that is our vision for loliware. >> we are focused on retail as well. we are focused on that particular sales channel. >> any competition? >> we have patents pending. there are candy cane cups. if you look at the ice cream cone, it is an experience. environmental projects -- products that change and experience. >> you bring up this point that the biodegradable products are biodegradable, but it does need to go somewhere. >> what people do not know is that they contain a chemical to help them do great. bpa is naturally in the material, but they add another material to help them biodegrade. loliware is truly biodegradable because it is edible. is biodegradable and is edible. the future of packaging and disposables is edible. >> what to do to invent this? >> amy trained industrial designer. we always had interest in the environment. loliware is being promoted by the center for social innovation. >> we look at loliware as a material that can create anything across functional food. packaging and developing water bottles. we are developing anything that can be biodegradable. >> this will take on a whole new meaning. cheers. congratulations. edible drinks, who knew? thank you very much. chelsea briganti and jennifer love. coming up, with the memorial day weather a little hot to handle, i will speak to the founder of an ice bar. it will keep you hydrated and cold. later on, the owner of a new york city jazz club talks about the popularity for jazz falling. this is "taking stock." ♪ >> meteorologists have forecasted that the summer will be one of the hottest on record. how you keep cool been in a bargain is made entirely of ice? -- a bar that is made entirely of ice? minus5 ice bar has four locations throughout the united states. i am joined now by cofounder craig ling. thank you very much for being here. >> it is great to be here. >> tell us the trajectory of starting on ice bar in new zealand. >> it started as a joke. we built a temporary ice bar for america's cup. people went crazy. we tried to take it down in three months and he continually grew and grew. we opened a second location. then we outgrew ourselves in new zealand. we were very fortunate that an american company came along. they put money into the concept. it was in las vegas. we went from there and it was amazing. >> when someone walks in to a minus5 ice bar, what do they see? >> people cost perception of an ice bar is funny. they do not know what they are expecting. someone goes those in and their whole face changes. it blows them away. no one actually expects the whole place to be made of ice. we have 40-50 tons of ice. >> ice chandeliers. >> we have everything. >> ice glassware. >> all the cabinets are ice. depending on the city, we'd like to bring something from the city into the ice are. like in new york, we have images of central park. >> u.s. them into the blocks of ice on the walls? >> absolutely. no matter where we are, we create something that people can talk about. with a nice cocktail, it blows you away. >> not only do you get to see all of this, but there is equipment. it is 23 degrees fahrenheit. >> you go through a reception area. you get a jacket which keeps you warm. you get gloves that you can throw away at the end. you go to the anteroom. when you are brave, you go into the ice bar. you see it all. >> this ice is brought in from canada. it is canadian ice. >> some of it is from canada, some is from the united states. we like clarity. we are fussy about the type of ice. >> did you have to educate yourself about the types of ice and make some sort of rigorous organization? >> absolutely. we have many people working for us. they are working on various attractions. we handpick the ice together. what we are going to carp, we choose it together. it takes a lot of time to get it together. we are trying to find the right thing. these guys are amazing and incredible. >> the ice bar is not only something for the public, it can be rented out. you could have carvings and parties. >> that's right. corporate functions are huge for us. 35% of our business. we do fortune 500 companies. we do anything. we have done full-size cars. >> and automobile carved out of ice? >> we had a carved out of ice and it was at the launch party. it blew everyone away. anything we can do it ice, it is about the attraction of ice and what you can do with it. >> how long do people laugh in the ice bar? >> half an hour. 40 minutes. >> is there a particular drink that is most popular? >> we have about 12 cocktails. we have various other martinis that are popular. our main cocktails are standard cocktails. you can have whatever you want. >> what does it cost to put one of these together? >> $5 million from start to finish. it takes 18 months-two years. a lot goes into the backside of an ice bar. a lot of people think it is a big freezer. they think it just blows cold air, but that is far from the truth. it is $1.5 million in engineering. it took me around three years to play together. >> from australia? well done. any plans to do one in scandinavia? >> we have extension plans this year. we are opening in san francisco. we will open in honolulu. in april, we will do for you. >> you will be all over the map. >> we just did a deal in florida. and the cayman islands. it is a joint venture we are doing. hopefully we will have more done in the caribbean. >> i want to thank you very much. craig ling, minus5 ice bar down there. coming up next, the owner of the birdland jazz club talks about the state of live music and the future of jazz in new york city. in the 1930's and 1940's, manhattan was the center of the jazz world. charlie parker, whose name was bird. the original birdland closed, but the modern one is going strong. the owner, gianni valenti, joins me now. let's talk about music for a moment. it is a draw for any kind of club. what happens over the course of the last two years? >> there was a decline. in the 1960's and the 1970's, most americans turned their back on jazz. it went away to europe and asia. in the early 1980's, they were starting a resurgence. i've found that the last five years have been the past five years that we have had. that is mainly due to the education process of getting our younger people involved in music. years ago, young people probably stay away. they thought it was older people. 90 c high schools, colleges, universities. they have great music programs. what we do, especially at birdland, is we try to get young people involved. >> tell us about building birdland. it is based in the midtown, times square area. >> that is very interesting. i came to new york city and i went to nyu. i worked in the industry and i opened a restaurant. one afternoon, a young lady came in who happened to be there. we started chatting. it was doris parker, charlie parker's widow. the conversation went on and i was building another place nearby. she stopped in one day and said, this looks like the old birdland. we have to open up charlie's bandstand. i had lunch with her. she brought a friend of her. it was max roach. he said, we have to do this. we have to do it right. i said, i am on board. we opened up at 105th street. i educated myself and try to create this is the workplace that it was. in the 1940's and 1950's. in midtown. i moved to 44th street in time square. >> what did you expect? what would be a perfect day at birdland? >> a perfect day would be arriving around 7:30 p.m., have a great dinner, and at 8:30 p.m., wait for a show to begin. there are a number of musicians. 40 or 50 feet from you. >> any chance you will take it on the road? you have the name and history. >> is interesting. i had a recent partnership with michael feinstein. he is a dear friend. we are in the process and it should be open by may. there will be a new birdland. >> where will that be? >> the new space is going to be above birdland where it is now. we took the basement to create a new club for emerging artists. what is important and what i think is to keep it going. to give us the opportunity to get emerging artist. >> gianni valenti, the owner of birdland. ♪

Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 20221018

the walters family letters are here at the national postal museum, and they are really at the heart of this book. and one of the wonderful things about the way that they have organized this book is that the letters really pull you in to a period 160 years ago and help you understand the centrality of the written word, particularly at a time when families are frequently separated for the first time and they have provided the information that you need to not only understand the family networks, but the community networks and the postal network and what's happening geopolitically in the united states during the civil war. so really looking forward to this talk. lynn heidelberg is a curator here at the smithsonian national postal museum. she's specializes in the history of u.s. postal service and has published essays and created several exhibits, specifically in this case on military mail, including mail call, which you can visit out in the gallery floor as well as my fellow soldiers letters from world war one, for which she received the smithson sheehan secretary's research prize in 2018. thomas halon curates the lighter than air collections, including balloons, lamps and airships at the smithsonian national air and space museum. his research focuses on ballooning in the civil war, as well as the use of airships and blimps in america. he is the coauthor of milestones of flight the epic of aviation with the national air and space museum. so in december 1863, rachel ward walters sat down to write a letter from her home in northwestern indiana, and she opened it in a phrase to her husband, who was miles away serving in the fifth indiana calvary. and she wrote, quote, kind and affectionate companion once more. i attempt to address you by the silent language of the pen. four months later, her sister, phoebe ward duncan, used very similar words when she wrote to david as well in keeping up these family connections. and she wrote in april 1864, my dear brother, after a shameful silence, which i beg to pardon you, i once again address you by the silent language of the pen. and although rachel and phoebe say that their language is silence, we're hoping that that through their letters in the collection, that we will talk about tonight, that their words come alive and their expressions that they share with their family, their thoughts and their perspective, in particular during a moment of national strife, and certainly for this family and the individuals within it and the phrases that rachel and phoebe and others used about the silent language of the pen are really embody what people were trying to do with the mail. and to keep up that communication. those kind of phrases were the conventions of the time. they were used to a certain etiquette of letter writing, and it was very widespread. so it was common to to run into such phrases as these. they were commonly taught when at school for reading and writing purposes. and it was a time where more and more people were writing letters. in the mid 19th century, more americans were becoming accustomed to using the mail. it had become far more affordable, all with the reforms of the post office in the mid 19th century, making the postage more affordable and using innovations like the postage stamp which make it far more easy to access. and in that time, the americans had become used to a reliable mail service, that they had become used to a certain timeliness of those letters and they talked to each other through that language of those letters about the timeliness and always making note of when they had received a letter and apologizing if they were delayed. and of course, those kind of delays became far more emotionally compounded when times of war, like the walter's, a family experienced. and so turning to those kind of stop phrases that rachel and phoebe used was a way to sort of get yourself writing and being able to to use some of those customs that everybody was was used to at a time where some of the mail was not flowing as easily as it had before. but the post office department and the military made every effort to keep the personal letters flowing, particularly through the lines of the homefront. and and there was on the front keeping both informed of the reasons why they were fighting and and keeping them in touch with each other. it's these kind of letters that we're sharing through this collection tonight that's here at the national postal museum. and it came to us in to installments from the walter's family of of indiana. they donated it to the smithsonian in the first few items that came to the smithsonian in 1964, donated by thur w, the grandson of david and rachel walter's, and his da, june walters. leonard donated the bulk of the collection of the letters in 1991. the picture here is of willard and amelia. walter's this willard being the son of david and rachel walters. so it's through their family line that we have these letters to share with you and share with american public in this donation. it becomes clear why the walter's family valued these letters. there's 180 letters and papers, mostly of the use of envelopes that show the way that the mail travel, the stf that mail. when the address had to change, to find somebody who had relocated and the postmarks of the work that st office was doing to to process those mail. ave aboutf those envelopes and about 80 or so letters and a few items of ephemera that the family enclosed while trying to communicate with each other, including the item in the middle here, which is a special order that was issued in 1863, and that david had chosen to enclose in this envelope with his letter 's pictured. and was at a time while border state, and working with a the fifth indiana calvary to secure a peacee area. in particular, this special order declared martial law in the counties so that the state election could go along peacefully. so this is one of the kind of items that he chose to share with his wife, to let her know the kind of experiences that he was having. and then these passed through the family and into the collection. so we're fortunate to have not only their letters and their words, but also these kind of mementos that they shared, even some small souvenirs, but also some of the pension documents that the family worked with to to work in the aftermath of the war. the entire collection actually spans from the beginning of the war, and it just pre-war of 1859, with a few letters with rachel beginning the relationship with david just before they were married. and it closes with her letters. in 1868. through this wonderful collection. we were able to really start to pull out the details, not only about the experience during the war, but but also the experience that each of these different family members, each of these different writers had. and we started by completing an accurate transcription of the letters. and then we placed them in chronological order. and once we did that, they were no longer just 180 pieces of individual pieces of mail and envelopes. but there was a story. there was a narrative that that evolved from that. we were really able to see conversations start to develop the these family members would write a letter and someone would respond to questions that were were sent in that. and it really, again, gave them a life that they they you didn't realize before that time. you really start to see connections form this network that's created in this family of letter writers so that they could keep up with what was going on and understand what experience each of them is having. the although there are several writers in the collection that only have a few mentions like phoebe, as lynn mentioned, the collection really consists of these five main writers. they're the os at really are the the heart and soul of the collection. first, we have rachel jane ward as lynn mentioned, s mries david walters on december 16th, 1860, becoming rachel walters. she becomes this nexus of this communication hub. she is one of the most literate of all the writers and in fa, works as a schoolteacher a year later. and she really is the one that the brothers and brother, her brothers in law and her husband are writing to her. and then she's disseminating that information back to the other brothers and also including messages from what's going on at home, you know, in their county or in their individual houses and anything that will help them stay connected to their home. so she becomes a critical element of this. this group of of letters. next, we have david lts, her sbd, who, as lynn mentioned, joined the fifth indiana calvary. he serves generally in the central area of the country we have isaac walters, who is one of the first of the brothers to joiup he joins the 20th indiana infantry. he svealong the east coast in the eastern theater of the war, mostly in virginia. we have john wesley walters, the youngest of the brothers. he joins the 46th indiana infantry and he's stationed in, at the time, the western theater, which is actually the mississippi river. and these three brothers are literally sent to the three corners of the war. they're as geographically separate as they can be. and it only makes that network of communication even more important. and then finally, we have john louderback. he's in david's company. he eventually becomes the commanding officer of david's company. but through his letters, we were able to decipher that some of david's early letters are most likely written by him. so most likely dictated by david. but written by john louderback to send messages home and the as we follow these letters through the conflicts, you really start to see the individual personalities come through. you see different penmanship, different grammar, different phrases that are used by the writers. for example, this is one of rachel's letters. she uses a blue ink almost exclusively through thwa there'a few that are not. but. but she's really this is this is one of the ways you could quickly tell tt was one of rachel's letts. and here e aws a picture of a a u.s. flag with the words union forever on it. this is the only one thash illustrated. but again, it it gives it such a personal touch. it it's so important to to see who these people were, what, you know, why were they writing these letters and it's it again, they really become these individuals instead of just, you know, kind of random pieces of paper. so although we have numerous letters in the collection, we've selected a few highlights, too, to present to you tonight to show you again who who this family was, who, who these people were. so the first one we have here is from isaac walters. he is described as being five foot ten inches with dark hair and gray eyes, a very basic description at the time. when he joins up, he's unmarried. he's just shy of his 29th birthday. he's the first of the walters brothers to join the union army. he joins company f of the 20th indiana. as we mentioned, he officially musters in on july 22nd, 1861. and this is the first letter that we have in the collection. the first one that heent home, dated october 17th, 1861. so betweenhat time, he is in training camp in indiana before s unit is again shipped out to the east coast. and he actually finds himself in the eastern theater of war along some of the coastal islands of north carolina. the union makes an effort early in the war to capture some of those islands, to protect naval assets that were going to be going up and down the coast. and he is involved in some of these very early campaigns. and he he also so in this letter, one of the first things he specifically mentions is news that he had received most likely from rachel in a previous letter, which is not in the collection. and he writes abt he mentions news from home and says, quote, i was a little surprised to hear that you had an air so soon, but i hope you will live and do well in order that dave will have somebody to set up corn for him. i fancy his name very much. i believe it is the very name that i would have given him myself. so what he's responding to is the fact that david and rachel had had a son, willard, who you'd seen in that previous picture. and they had obviously just informed isaac of his birth. so, again, you're already starting to see this network forming the the importance of these letters as they're sharing information back and forth. isaac goes on to give some detail about what he's experienced back to the family, describing his experiences in north carolina. he writes, there was nearly half of the regiment taking medicine at the present time, and there is still more taking sick. this is a very sickly whole. so that's not how most people would describe hatteras nowadays. but at the time this was what he experienced. there was great sickness there and his regiment really suffered. why they were there. so this really is a the start of a grueling campaign for the 20th indiana. they end up fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the civil war. and isaac takes part in many of them. so this kind of beginning stage of the war for him, definitely leads to to more serious combat later. almost a year after the letter by isaac. two of his brothers join up. they both fall into, including the oldest brother of the walter's eli walter's, who joins with isaac in the 20 at the indiana. their third brother in line wine. david walter's joins in september of 1862 with the fifth indiana calvary. and it's shortly thereafter that he reports to camp joe reynolds in indianapolis over 100 miles from his home, leaving his wife and his infant son. from the records, we know a little bit about david walters and his time with the fifth indiana calvary. we find a little bit about his past in the military records as well, that he was a farmer, that he was 23 years of three years of age when he volunteered that like his brother isaac, he was also five foot ten, had a dark complexion and dark hair and brown eyes. so those are the only ways that we have to picture. david, other than his letters. we do know that once he reached indianapolis, he was soon put through the paces of drilling. and he writes this to his wife about this. this would prepare him with the fifth indiana calvary and the duties that they would soon have through the middle of the country. and later in the war, preparing for the campaign through georgia at the time that he writes this in october. first, he writes to his wife about some of the excitement of his having with these new events and having joined and becoming a soldier. he writes, quote, we are drilling about as strong as ever we can. and yesterday, there was about 6000 on drill. at one time. and today we had about the same number of soldiers and about 30 to 40000 spectators. we had the biggest time today th we had since i've been here. we had a regular sham battle and fired about 25 rounds apiece. and there was infantry and calvary and two cannon. and the engagement. and there was also a general two of you and the governor. and he goes on to tell his wife the reasons why he had volunteered and the moment he writes, i quote, i'm sorry that your put so much trouble with our things. it can't be help now. and i feel i'm doing my duty to help and maintain the laws of our country and put down the wicked rebellion. it's one of the few times in the series of about 18 letters we have in the collection that he discusses the reason why he has joined up and in a way, the void that he enclosed this kind of echoes what he is saying in the letter with the patriotic symbols that it has on it. at the center of it is a american eagle and the seal of e u.s. around it are 34 pennantsith abbreviations for 34 states, including all of the states that had recently seceded during the war. and just a few days time, his wife was writing a letter at home and 20 year old and raising their one year old willie. she was writing about her new experience of moving from royals center in their home that she had shared with david to star city closer to some of her other family members. she discusses going to church and the things about farming. and again, as tom pointed out, using her blue ink, that was very common. this is one of the letters that is available to see in the gallery this evening and shows this side of the page of a two sided page. well worn and likely to have been re read as she wrote to david about what was going on at home. she wrote, i quote, william, he's not very well and he's cutting his teeth, which makes him very fretful, but he's getting better. so he can go down and play a little. and i hope these lines reach you and that you find you will. i received two letters today and one from you lately was last thursday evening and one on monday evening. that was the one that you sent that was directed to royal center and then was re mailed when it was sent on to star city. and like many conventions of the time, she does keep recounting about the way the mail was moving and her kind of duty and being a good letter writer. and she closes with saying, quote, i must close. is there waiting to take the letter to the office. and willie is crying for me to take him. so please write soon as you get this. and that pleading for more letters is a common thread throughout the walters family. several months later, rachel receives a letter from john wesley. he is described as similar to isaac, though he's shorter at five foot six. he's the youngest of the brothers. he's only 20 years old. when he joins the regiment. during the 46 indiana, he mustered into union service in october of 1861 and receives training in indiana before again joining the union army, moving down the mississippi river. he is he and his unit are actively engaged in several of the early battles in that that theater, including a battle for island number ten, which was a fortified island. the confederate army had built up to try to prevent any ships from going by that they fight to to take to open up the way the this specific letter written june 10th, 1863. details some of the nonstop campaigning that john wesley had experienced with his unit. and he uses this letter to form the family of wound he had received. he writes, we found them. i found th referring to the confederate army at a place called the champions hill. ere is where i got wounded. a musket ball struck me on my right side, just above the hip. we lay there three weeks. this letter helped dispel some rumors that had reached indiana that he'd actually been killed in the battle champion hill battle that preceded what would be the siege of vicksburg and the the this ability to send that home certainly must have relieved those. and to dispel such a rumor, he also explains in this letter that after being kind of stuck at the on the battlefield for so long, he is eventually moved to a a larger hospital in memphis to recover. he also relays to rachel how glad he was to have received a letter from her and received news from back home. he writes. you also spoke about david. i'm glad you told me where he is. i wrote him a long letter if he gets it. i want you to let me know what he thought of it. so again, this this is another example of just how important this this network is to the brothers. not only are they receiving news from home, but one of the quickest way for them to receive news from the other brothers is to go receive it from from rachel. so they're they're literally using her as kind of the the middle two to get that information back. and forth. he his unit goes on to participate in the siege of vicksburg, as i mentioned. he, however, does not. it takes him some time to recover from the wounds he received at champions hill. he's placed in some roles guarding railroads and whatnot behind the union lines as he recovers from that. but rachel continues to write to isaac and john wesley throughout their service. again, acting as this this nexus. and she, of course, continues to write to david while he's in the field. so this letter that we selected from rachel to david is about a year after that one from john wesley. it's mid-may 1864, and her life is rather busy on the home front. she's again sharing all the news about the family, the health of the neighbors. anisalking about the union cause. but much of it focus o herself. and there's many things that she's dog. so i'll read you a long p that sheasnd let her words speak for themselves. quote, i'm still trying to tch school. and the prospect begins to look a little fairer. myl average from about 20 to 4 to about . this week. looks a little more encouraging. and this saturday, i' bn covering the corn forapnd about for noon. and i expect to help this afternoon as well. he's got about 18 acres planted and i don't kn much he's gog to really as well. and he's well pleased to see me come home. always runs to mand he says that he's mama's boy and pies boy. and he says the pause down in dixie fightingebs. and so i asked him what he thought about pie and what would rftion when he came home. and he said he thought the pinewood fetch him some little boots. but i'm ready w to go out to the field. and so i must finish this a little while later. and she does too. you. continues the letter the next day on may 15th, this time telling david about visiting his sister martha. she tells them about a letter that she received from his sister emeline and we do have correspondence from both of those sisters in the collection as well. but it's a closing that she uses at the end of this may 15th letter in which she writes again about sort of the receiving the letters and the timeline. and she writes, quote, i will close hoping to hear from you as soon as possible and try to write oftener as i have been trying to do. i'll send you a few stamps in this letter. i will send you more at the time, but i'm afraid you might not get them. and in some ways, some of the web, as we were looking at the letters, there were things that were prescient in many of these at the time that she is writing. and may 14, through 15. david is engaged at the battle of masaka in northern georgia. it's a pretty evenly matched battle between the union and the confederate forces. it actually is an inconclusive battle, but his regiment and his company suffer a number of casualty issues, including the capture of david, which we believe happened on may 14th. it's not until later in may. does rachel receive word about david's capture? and this is all through the auspices of his commanding officer, john louderback, who has taken it upon himself to write a letter before he himself is captured at the next battle that the fifth indiana calvary is engaged in and sent on to the anderson prison, andersonville prison. this letter from ice rachel is written only a few months later and he has obviously learned the information about david's capture from rachel. he responds in this letter to offer his condolences that that david had been captured. as we follow this family through the war, through these letters, this one particularly became quite heartbreaki. isaac'sone shifts dramatically from some of his early missives in the war to. this point. and you can really start to see how not only the campaigns that he's engaged in are wearing on him, but the news from what's happening to his brothers, what's happening to his family is also starting to weigh on him more and more. he he the condolences he offers are as such. quote, i feel very sorry for you that you can't hear from david. you must be on great suspense and you must feel very lonely. but you must look upon the bright side of the picture and hope for the best. i think he will turn up all right ime. if the gray backs don't starve to death and i hope they will fail in this if thertake it. think david has a pretty good constitution and will get through. all right. if he is only alive. so again, this just this small, you know, portion of the letter just showcases, again, the suffering that, you know, isaac is feeling for his brother and being so far from home, being unable to know how his brother's doing and that his one connection is rachel. the the war weariness that that isaac is suffering comes through also. and later in this letter, he writes, i think the war will close sometime or never if it never closes, i guess there is no danger of us poor soldiers getting out of a job. i will close for the present, hoping soon to hear from you. and this. the sullen attitude most likely comes from the fact that his unit had not been engaged almost continuously in the siege of petersburg city in richmond, which the union army was attempting to capture. and then capturing richmond, virginia, the capital, the confederacy. so he even writes that he's located in the camp during the siege at that time. so the war is again weighing heavily on isaac as as all the family, as it continues, as the the suffering continues for the family. this letter written about a year later by john lauterbach to rach wters, is reesents the type of letter that no on went to receive during the war, but so many did. he is writing to racl to inform her of the death of her husband during the civil war. there was no foal way for families to be informed of such matters. oftentimes times, casualties from units would be published in local newspapers, or it was up to a commanding officer to write home to provide such details. lauterbach starts the letter b not weary or troubled. trust in the lord, for he is able to comfort. he continues, i think i am safe in saying that your husband, d.w waers, died in rebel prison about the 10th of february. i saw him about the fifth. he was done unable to help himself. i waited ohim and gave him as much comfort as i could until i was taken down myself. he often spoke of you and his little boy, which he spoke of with a great deaof respect and seem to be waiting wh a great deal of anxiety for the time to come. when the prison doors would be thrown open and he could retn to his loved ones at home. but alas, the small amount of meal that he was allowed was not sufficient for him. i did not see him die myself, but i have been told by competent persons that he died about the time that i have stated. captain lauterbach goes on to provide some basic details, adds rachel, as to how she can start the process to apply for a pension. as a widow, she would be entitled to one, and although she was entitled to one. that process would become a years long time consuming pursuit for her. in part because of duties like captain lauterbach took upon himself that it wasn't a formal situation where there were documentation for it, as he said in a letter, and got her back to the letter. he says he is not completing david's mustering out papers. he's not completing the paperwork for david. and so it's left to rachel to put that together, which this one letter front and back shows us that some of that process went on for four years. the letter on the front side, on the far goes to town over there is rachel writing in response to letter that she had sent previously to the missing soldiers office in washington, d.c. and she's correcting some information that she needs to to have publish the missing soldiers officer was established in 1865 by clara barton soon after, she finishes her medical assistance work with the union army and she sees that this kind of lack of information in a formalized system of telling families about the soldier's status of missing in action, killed in action, and whether they're returning from p.o.w. camps spurs her to start a office that deals with correspondence with veterans and for their families. they devise a way to publicize this by soliciting names from the family to be put into the local newspapers and then soliciting, then the response from veterans to write to the missing soldiers office with any information they may have with their about their comrades. so rachel uses this in a way that is a typical than many of the americans that were writing to the missing soldiers office because unlike some of americans who were looking for their husbands like rachel, were looking for fathers and uncles, she was looking for that information. she already knew. she already knew the outcome for for david what she needed was to have a witness who would be able to put this on paper, that she could secure the money that would support herself and the toddler son willing. so in writing, she wrote to the missing soldiers office to make sure that david's name spelled correctly. they had written to her to say that david walters would be included on one of these roles that would go to the local newspapers. and she corrected them that it had to be david and they flipped the paper over at the office and returned it to her with assurances that, yes, david, w walter's will be listed as a member of the fifth indiana cavalry and it's signed for clara barton in her name by one of the office workers, the missing soldiers office operated for the three years and during that time they connected over 22,000 americans with information about missing soldiers. this took aut00,000 letters that were circulated by the missing soldiers officof inquiries that they were sending out. and abouternal letters like the one that they were sending to rachel, inclunghe one here on their letter stationed that mentions that they e e office of correspondence. and it on this letter they are king the testimony of one of the veterans by the name of john brown, who is also from indiana. and sharing that with rachel, that john brown has informed them that that he saw david die at four in south carolina. this is exactly the kind of information that rachel needed to secure a pension. but upon further work with the pension documents that are in the collection and those that are at the national archives, we know that it wasn't john brown's witness testimony or one of the other letters that we have in the collection, the four through the missing soldiers office, that finally, rachel, the pension there was a third veteran who came forward and gave witness testimony. and so after two years, almost three years of trying, she did secure the pension in september of 1865. sorry, 68. and we know that. only three months later she died, leaving their young son, willy in the care of her parents. samuel ward jr, and her mother sarah. and it's through the pension filing that sarah that rachel did that they were able to support willy with an $8 a month miner's pension. it's those kind of documents that help us put together the story of this family and their experiences through the civil war. and as as rachel is, many parts of this communication network between these brothers, this sisters and other members of their community, what is puzzling in a way, is how did we end up with the letters and how did the walter's family end up with rachel's letters returning from david? and, of course took the efforts of david, certainly to save his letters from rachel. that meant he carried those with him through all the states that he traveled. there's no sign on any of the envelopes that we have in the collection at any point that he say enclosed extra letters of hers and return them back to her. we do have one hint in one of the letters from john lauterbach back now, one where he does inform her of david's death that david's effects are at his own house and she is welcome to come to the lauterbach house and pick up those effects, including a ten case, which i think would have very well preserved these kind of paper records of this family and the words that they exchanged each other, like the mystery of how the letters returned. we, we, we came upon some other mysteries with this this story, with developing this. and one of them was, in fact, the the location of david's death, although we had these affidavits and other testimonies of his death of a prisoner of war camp, there is a headstone located in marietta national cemetery in marietta, georgia, in section a site for 73 that reads david walters company i fifth indiana calvary. and we can assure you there were no other david walters in company i of the fifth indiana calvary. and the site lists the date of death as june 5th, 1864, about three weeks after the date david is reported as captured. so in a time before dog tags dna, there was no way to really identify the dead after a battle other than those who knew them, hopefully being around to do so so. miss ids did happen and it is fully possible that there is somebody else in that grave, but it is still made out to david. so that was something we, you know, we had to to research and puzzle over. we are pretty certain that with the the sheer amount of testimonies that that rachel herself gathered, that, you know, his death did occur in a prisoner of war camp. but it was something to consider that again, there is a grave in georgia. the other item that we couldn't ever locate was, a photograph of any of of the writers of these letters, even though in multiple letters we have them asking for photographs, describing going and getting photographs taken, writing about sending photographs to each other, and then complementing each other photographs. so throughout the letters, we have all of these these comments about photographs of each other. and there are none that we could find. there were the they were none that were included with the donation. there were the family currently did have any they were able to provide us that earlier photo of their son later in life, but nothing from the time period. and when we asked experts in civil war photography, especially at the center for civil war photography, in other places, they mentioned that many photographs not labeled. these were often sent to family members. so why would you label them? but as a result, as soon as those family members passed that that that identity goes with them. so it's not uncommon to have unidentified photographs from the era. and the one that you're looking at right now was recently digitized by library of coress. this is in their collection, and it's simply labeled as an unidentified soldier of the fifth indiana calvary. so this is david's unit. so could that be possibly. but we we just don't know. and although the members of the walter's family are faceless to us now, they're voice still lives on, their story still lives on through the letters they saved and through the letters they wrote, they they documented what it was like to live through this terrible time in. american history and their story represents what many families went through during this time. and it was such a privilege for us to be able to really down into this story and to share it with you all. thank you. thank you. so hoping to take a q&a and i know we have a microphone in the audience because we're also on zoom online. so the microphone will be going around the audience and i know there's also potentially online questions as well. and we're hoping as we're sharing this collection through the book, that many others will come to this collection and bring their own questions about it as tom and i have any questions here. thank you. i have a two part question. first off, can you speak to. digitizing, transcribing this set of letters versus some of the other collections that you've worked through in the past? was this particularly challenging or was this pretty standard? was there any particular challenges with this collection versus others? i might add that with this collection, because of the various letter writers, there is a a sliding scale of difficulty, as we showed you with some of rachel's letters, she has very nice script. her her grammar tends to be kind of higher than most. so transcribing her letters were were on the easier part of that scale. david, on the other hand, from his letters, you can tell that he he was not as proficient in in his writing or his grammar. those proved to be a little more difficult to to pass out. but it did improve through the war. you could tell that as he kind of had practice, that he got better with with with writing home. as we mentioned earlier, several of his letters. we we think we're written by a different hand either john lauterbach or another soldier in his unit. but he does he does write some one of the other aspects of this is almost all of them are written in ink, which did make it easier. pencil has a tendency to smear and just over the years it it can be harder to read but ink helps stay as it is darker and it just allows you to to read a little easier. and in doing the transcriptions we tried to stay as true verbatim to what we found in the letters. so that means a lot of things are not spelled to a standard modern english and we actually kind of would advise people to read them almost aloud as many times. they would have probably been read aloud to share with with other family members and to share this kind of news. this is certainly a families that had gone to school, but for a different amounts of time. we looked at the census records and saw it different times that rachel ward and her siblings had gone to school for various amounts of time, as well as the many siblings in the walter's family. so it does explain a sort of variations in their education level and. so much more of their letters is almost in like an oral tradition about how their their to each other through through these documents. but they're also combining them with the etiquette of letter writing and some of those phrases. so those we tried to preserve. so my second question is so you mention you have about 180 letters in the collection. can you hazard a guess? and how much is we do know for a fact that there are missing letters because they will several of them are referenced. rachel will say in your letter of this date, which we don't have, i would say we have definitive some around maybe 15, 20 that are specifically referenced that we don't have we also don't have any of the letters that rachel sent to isaac or john wesley or the only letters of rachel's we have are the ones that she sent to david. so that kind of her missives to them are missing. so a lot of what she told them, we were we could learn through some of their letters back, you know, in your letter of this date, you mentioned this. so we could get little puzzle pieces of what she had written to them, but not her full letters. and we have about 15 envelopes without the contents. so we know that we have the wrappers, but we don't have what they had written. it is, but it helped us in ways that we use them to figure out where they were at certain times and so it did inform us about how they were traveling, where the brothers were at were at certain times the number of letters that rachel was receiving, as well. so they did fill in some of those gaps, even though we did not have the contents. behind. and it sounds like some of the important of these letters are the envelopes that they came in, the stamps that were on them. was it maybe you mentioned this, but is it common? and why do you do you have some insight as to why they did keep the envelopes? why not just the letters, especially thinking about trying to travel with all of these letters? it's just extra paper that you kind of have to bring with you. so what are your thoughts on that? i think it's partly it's maybe a little bit of let's have a wrapper on the outside to protect these letters as you're carrying them. it does also does become part of the story. and yes, some families choose to just save the contents of the letters and some museums and archives to save the the letters, not the envelopes. and in this case, we have it certainly was when the family was donating it. the first items that they donated, the smithsonian. were seven of the envelopes. and then the letters came a year later, when they were ready to to donate, there was and i think it was partly just for them and for what it does for us. it tells part of that story of who has written on that address, how that moved, and have some of those dates that some of these letters don't include all the dates and places that they were and maybe some of that also helped. rachel, you know, where people were and why she saved some of those. we have a couple coming in online. so the first that i have here is thank you for the wonderful and you mentioned that the letters themselves represent the narrative of the family's wartime experiences as editors. how much work did you have to do to fill in the gaps between the letters, or are there no significant gaps in the collection and it's fairly robust. between 1861 through 1865. from the beginning of the war, and then through the aftermath. what tom and i really tried to do was not intervene too much. we tried to, in the way that we approached the transcriptions, we tried to leave it as verbatim as possible. we used notes to to help identify some places and and people's names that are maybe a little bit harder to read some period terms, but it's the introductory essays that we give that are about each of the that i think fill in the this sort of put it in the context of what's happening in the nation, what's happening in the v.a., what's happening in the community in which rachel lived and the walter's brothers had lived. so i think we filled not many of the gaps. it was pretty small. we most of the wartime experiences, lynn said, was was well-represented in the letters we we did occasionally have to look at records of the units where they may have been to confirm certain things, especially when, for example, when isaac wrote in the camp, the 20th indiana, that that's not really a good. so being able to to kind of say, okay here but again that information was there. we knew they were in the camp for the 23rd year and we just had a pass it out a little bit. most of the information we added would be things kind of more the background things from census records, from genealogical records, things like that, which was not necessarily in the letter. so that was really where we added most. but again, they they did provide a wealth of information that in the letters themselves that that didn't require us to go too deep into that area. and at least one occasion we did correct something to do. we found that rachel had misstated one of hers. and in june of 1864 and as many of us have this sort of moment, she wrote 1863, but none of the events that she's recording matched up with. she talks about someone's death and someone's marriage, which we knew from some of the other letters had actually happened in 1864. so we made a note of that. a couple more here to so has clara barton's missing soldiers office in washington dc been turned into a museum? it is, yes. it is a museum on seventh street. it's part of a complex with the national civil war medicine museum and is is open. and then another common. thank you for the very interesting talk and bringing these letter writers to life. were there any surprises in the letters other than learning about the death or intimate details that would not be expected for that time period. surprises i was when when going through these letters the first time, especially kind of working on the transcripts and whatnot, the bluntness of isaac in his letter that we talked about to to rachel about, you know, david's experience, that kind of caught me off guard. i was i was a little surprised that at how kind of forward he was with that information, especially in a kind of moment where he's trying to be consoling. so i don't know if that was a surprise, but that did that did hit pretty hard, as did captain lauterbach's letter. you know, as you're following along, you're you know, you're almost rooting. and then, you know, to get to that letter, it was it was very, you know, a punch in the gut, if you would, to to suddenly read that again. you you kind of get invested in this family that you're you're following their story. you're seeing, you know, what they're doing, what they're experiencing. rachel often writes about how much she misses david, and he writes about how much he would like to go home, things like that. so to kind of get to that point was, again, kind of a surprise, if you would. i can't think of any surprising details that were shared. yeah, i think this surprises almost in reading them. when you read them for the first time, it's almost put your put you in the experience of being the recipient and and this is all news. so if it's the first time through of reading them, it's as the story unfolds as it had to the recipient. but as many times as we've read it, no surprises are there. but some of the poignant moments certainly do remain with you. and then do any of the letters comment on the literacy or ability ability to write home of other soldiers in the various units or of overcoming those challenges? yes, there's some of those kind of conventions of many letter writers often write about excuse me, for my penmanship very much. that was rachel would do that far more than i would say the brother is or david would do, and she's very conscious of it. once in a while they'll write about the sort of state of the material that you're using. and so sorry about the the ink is not very strong at this time. apologized when they didn't have a stamp. we have a letter from john wesley where he didn't expect to have had a stamp to pay for it. and so rachel would have had to pay for it upon delivery. but we do have that envelope and know that he must have found a stamp at some point. and there are moments where they talk about, of course, the sending and receiving of letters, but there's also moments where we do see them, particularly between david and rachel, start to use similar expressions in similar ways that they're doing. they're there post scripts and talking to each other. so there is certainly a consciousness in how they're writing to each other about letters. and as we mentioned, some of the letters from david are clearly in a different handwriting. so we don't know if he was unable to or if he was self-conscious his writing. but he it is obvious that at some point someone else is writing letters, that he's dictating. but then we do also have letters in his hand. so we don't know if he just didn't have someone who could write for him or if he had finally been taking a chance. but when he kind of starts copying some of rachel's styles, that is in his hand. so it is interesting to see him kind of learning from her letter writing technique in his own letters, and then we have one more. can you talk about the mail delivery system during that time? yeah, for the union forces and americans on the union side, it was pretty much business as usual, except for the mail had stopped being exchanged with the confederate states. so for getting mail to p.o.w. is to those who were trying to cross the line. many americans were using the express companies and there was could go through what were called excuse me, flag of truce points where there would be exchanges of goods, including the mail for the walters and their letters pretty were sort of on that timely convention that they were used to of the mail moving fairly rapidly with the strong railway system in the north and through up to the the front that was done through the post office department, working through what they called special agents who were the intermediaries between the post office department and the military in many ways, the military had assigned most of the mail duties to privates and mail who were taking the mail to and from the headquarters. and and that mail moved fairly rapidly. and at sometimes some surprising moments that would be delivered during combat. but we do know that that there times where the walter's do and other americans and the civil war letters do note about the changes in their their mail system. but for the most part, they're they're fairly open in how they talk about the news of the day. they're not censored letters in any way. the soldier's letters are not censored. so anything they off is what they've self-censored. we have one more comment and it is that david and rachel are my great great great grandparents and this has been a wonderful discussion to join. so thank you, lynn and tom. that's wonderful. thank you. thank you.

Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 20221018

now it is my distinct pleasure to introduce this book and its editors. tom and lynn. the walters family letters are here at the national postal museum, and they are really at the heart of this book. and one of the wonderful things about the way that they have organized this book is that the letters really pull you in to a period 160 years ago and help you understand the centrality of the written word, particularly at a time when families are frequently separated for the first time and they have provided the information that you need to not only understand the family networks, but the community networks and the postal network and what's happening geopolitically in the united states during the civil war. so really looking forward to this talk. lynn heidelberg is a curator here at the smithsonian national postal museum. she's specializes in the history of u.s. postal service and has published essays and created several exhibits, specifically in this case on military mail, including mail call, which you can visit out in the gallery floor as well as my fellow soldiers letters from world war one, for which she received the smithson sheehan secretary's research prize in 2018. thomas halon curates the lighter than air collections, including balloons, lamps and airships at the smithsonian national air and space museum. his research focuses on ballooning in the civil war, as well as the use of airships and blimps in america. he is the coauthor of milestones of flight the epic of aviation with the national air and space museum. so in december 1863, rachel ward walters sat down to write a letter from her home in northwestern indiana, and she opened it in a phrase to her husband, who was miles away serving in the fifth indiana calvary. and she wrote, quote, kind and affectionate companion once more. i attempt to address you by the silent language of the pen. four months later, her sister, phoebe ward duncan, used very similar words when she wrote to david as well in keeping up these family connections. and she wrote in april 1864, my dear brother, after a shameful silence, which i beg to pardon you, i once again address you by the silent language of the pen. and although rachel and phoebe say that their language is silence, we're hoping that that through their letters in the collection, that we will talk about tonight, that their words come alive and their expressions that they share with their family, their thoughts and their perspective, in particular during a moment of national strife, and certainly for this family and the individuals within it and the phrases that rachel and phoebe and others used about the silent language of the pen are really embody what people were trying to do with the mail. and to keep up that communication. those kind of phrases were the conventions of the time. they were used to a certain etiquette of letter writing, and it was very widespread. so it was common to to run into such phrases as these. they were commonly taught when at school for reading and writing purposes. and it was a time where more and more people were writing letters. in the mid 19th century, more americans were becoming accustomed to using the mail. it had become far more affordable, all with the reforms of the post office in the mid 19th century, making the postage more affordable and using innovations like the postage stamp which make it far more easy to access. and in that time, the americans had become used to a reliable mail service, that they had become used to a certain timeliness of those letters and they talked to each other through that language of those letters about the timeliness and always making note of when they had received a letter and apologizing if they were delayed. and of course, those kind of delays became far more emotionally compounded when times of war, like the walter's, a family experienced. and so turning to those kind of stop phrases that rachel and phoebe used was a way to sort of get yourself writing and being able to to use some of those customs that everybody was was used to at a time where some of the mail was not flowing as easily as it had before. but the post office department and the military made every effort to keep the personal letters flowing, particularly through the lines of the homefront. and and there was on the front keeping both informed of the reasons why they were fighting and and keeping them in touch with each other. it's these kind of letters that we're sharing through this collection tonight that's here at the national postal museum. and it came to us in to installments from the walter's family of of indiana. they donated it to the smithsonian in the first few items that came to the smithsonian in 1964, donated by thur w, the grandson of david and rachel walter's, and his da, june walters. leonard donated the bulk of the collection of the letters in 1991. the picture here is of willard and amelia. walter's this willard being the son of david and rachel walters. so it's through their family line that we have these letters to share with you and share with american public in this donation. it becomes clear why the walter's family valued these letters. there's 180 letters and papers, mostly of the use of envelopes that show the way that the mail travel, the stf that mail. when the address had to change, to find somebody who had relocated and the postmarks of the work that st office was doing to to process those mail. ave aboutf those envelopes and about 80 or so letters and a few items of ephemera that the family enclosed while trying to communicate with each other, including the item in the middle here, which is a special order that was issued in 1863, and that david had chosen to enclose in this envelope with his letter 's pictured. and is was at a time while border state, and working with a the fifth indiana calvary to secure a peacee area. in particular, this special order declared martial law in the counties so that the state election could go along peacefully. so this is one of the kind of items that he chose to share with his wife, to let her know the kind of experiences that he was having. and then these passed through the family and into the collection. so we're fortunate to have not only their letters and their words, but also these kind of mementos that they shared, even some small souvenirs, but also some of the pension documents that the family worked with to to work in the aftermath of the war. the entire collection actually spans from the beginning of the war, and it just pre-war of 1859, with a few letters with rachel beginning the relationship with david just before they were married. and it closes with her letters. in 1868. through this wonderful collection. we were able to really start to pull out the details, not only about the experience during the war, but but also the experience that each of these different family members, each of these different writers had. and we started by completing an accurate transcription of the letters. and then we placed them in chronological order. and once we did that, they were no longer just 180 pieces of individual pieces of mail and envelopes. but there was a story. there was a narrative that that evolved from that. we were really able to see conversations start to develop the these family members would write a letter and someone would respond to questions that were were sent in that. and it really, again, gave them a life that they they you didn't realize before that time. you really start to see connections form this network that's created in this family of letter writers so that they could keep up with what was going on and understand what experience each of them is having. the although there are several writers in the collection that only have a few mentions like phoebe, as lynn mentioned, the collection really consists of these five main writers. they're the os at really are the the heart and soul of the collection. first, we have rachel jane ward as lynn mentioned, s mries david walters on december 16th, 1860, becoming rachel walters. she becomes this nexus of this communication hub. she is one of the most literate of all the writers and in fa, works as a schoolteacher a year later. and she really is the one that the brothers and brother, her brothers in law and her husband are writing to her. and then she's disseminating that information back to the other brothers and also including messages from what's going on at home, you know, in their county or in their individual houses and anything that will help them stay connected to their home. so she becomes a critical element of this. this group of of letters. next, we have david lts, her sbd, who, as lynn mentioned, joined the fifth indiana calvary. he serves generally in the central area of the country we have isaac walters, who is one of the first of the brothers to joiup he joins the 20th indiana infantry. he svealong the east coast in the eastern theater of the war, mostly in virginia. we have john wesley walters, the youngest of the brothers. he joins the 46th indiana infantry and he's stationed in, at the time, the western theater, which is actually the mississippi river. and these three brothers are literally sent to the three corners of the war. they're as geographically separate as they can be. and it only makes that network of communication even more important. and then finally, we have john louderback. he's in david's company. he eventually becomes the commanding officer of david's company. but through his letters, we were able to decipher that some of david's early letters are most likely written by him. so most likely dictated by david. but written by john louderback to send messages home and the as we follow these letters through the conflicts, you really start to see the individual personalities come through. you see different penmanship, different grammar, different phrases that are used by the writers. for example, this is one of rachel's letters. she uses a blue ink almost exclusively through thwa there'a few that are not. but. but she's really this is this is one of the ways you could quickly tell tt was one of rachel's letts. and here e aws a picture of a a u.s. flag with the words union forever on it. this is the only one thash illustrated. but again, it it gives it such a personal touch. it it's so important to to see who these people were, what, you know, why were they writing these letters and it's it again, they really become these individuals instead of just, you know, kind of random pieces of paper. so although we have numerous letters in the collection, we've selected a few highlights, too, to present to you tonight to show you again who who this family was, who, who these people were. so the first one we have here is from isaac walters. he is described as being five foot ten inches with dark hair and gray eyes, a very basic description at the time. when he joins up, he's unmarried. he's just shy of his 29th birthday. he's the first of the walters brothers to join the union army. he joins company f of the 20th indiana. as we mentioned, he officially musters in on july 22nd, 1861. and this is the first letter that we have in the collection. the first one that heent home, dated october 17th, 1861. so betweenhat time, he is in training camp in indiana before s unit is again shipped out to the east coast. and he actually finds himself in the eastern theater of war along some of the coastal islands of north carolina. the union makes an effort early in the war to capture some of those islands, to protect naval assets that were going to be going up and down the coast. and he is involved in some of these very early campaigns. and he he also so in this letter, one of the first things he specifically mentions is news that he had received most likely from rachel in a previous letter, which is not in the collection. and he writes abt he mentions news from home and says, quote, i was a little surprised to hear that you had an air so soon, but i hope you will live and do well in order that dave will have somebody to set up corn for him. i fancy his name very much. i believe it is the very name that i would have given him myself. so what he's responding to is the fact that david and rachel had had a son, willard, who you'd seen in that previous picture. and they had obviously just informed isaac of his birth. so, again, you're already starting to see this network forming the the importance of these letters as they're sharing information back and forth. isaac goes on to give some detail about what he's experienced back to the family, describing his experiences in north carolina. he writes, there was nearly half of the regiment taking medicine at the present time, and there is still more taking sick. this is a very sickly whole. so that's not how most people would describe hatteras nowadays. but at the time this was what he experienced. there was great sickness there and his regiment really suffered. why they were there. so this really is a the start of a grueling campaign for the 20th indiana. they end up fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the civil war. and isaac takes part in many of them. so this kind of beginning stage of the war for him, definitely leads to to more serious combat later. almost a year after the letter by isaac. two of his brothers join up. they both fall into, including the oldest brother of the walter's eli walter's, who joins with isaac in the 20 at the indiana. their third brother in line wine. david walter's joins in september of 1862 with the fifth indiana calvary. and it's shortly thereafter that he reports to camp joe reynolds in indianapolis over 100 miles from his home, leaving his wife and his infant son. from the records, we know a little bit about david walters and his time with the fifth indiana calvary. we find a little bit about his past in the military records as well, that he was a farmer, that he was 23 years of three years of age when he volunteered that like his brother isaac, he was also five foot ten, had a dark complexion and dark hair and brown eyes. so those are the only ways that we have to picture. david, other than his letters. we do know that once he reached indianapolis, he was soon put through the paces of drilling. and he writes this to his wife about this. this would prepare him with the fifth indiana calvary and the duties that they would soon have through the middle of the country. and later in the war, preparing for the campaign through georgia at the time that he writes this in october. first, he writes to his wife about some of the excitement of his having with these new events and having joined and becoming a soldier. he writes, quote, we are drilling about as strong as ever we can. and yesterday, there was about 6000 on drill. at one time. and today we had about the same number of soldiers and about 30 to 40000 spectators. we had the biggest time today th we had since i've been here. we had a regular sham battle and fired about 25 rounds apiece. and there was infantry and calvary and two cannon. and the engagement. and there was also a general two of you and the governor. and he goes on to tell his wife the reasons why he had volunteered and the moment he writes, i quote, i'm sorry that your put so much trouble with our things. it can't be help now. and i feel i'm doing my duty to help and maintain the laws of our country and put down the wicked rebellion. it's one of the few times in the series of about 18 letters we have in the collection that he discusses the reason why he has joined up and in a way, the void that he enclosed this kind of echoes what he is saying in the letter with the patriotic symbols that it has on it. at the center of it is a american eagle and the seal of e u.s. around it are 34 pennantsith abbreviations for 34 states, including all of the states that had recently seceded during the war. and just a few days time, his wife was writing a letter at home and 20 year old and raising their one year old willie. she was writing about her new experience of moving from royals center in their home that she had shared with david to star city closer to some of her other family members. she discusses going to church and the things about farming. and again, as tom pointed out, using her blue ink, that was very common. this is one of the letters that is available to see in the gallery this evening and shows this side of the page of a two sided page. well worn and likely to have been re read as she wrote to david about what was going on at home. she wrote, i quote, william, he's not very well and he's cutting his teeth, which makes him very fretful, but he's getting better. so he can go down and play a little. and i hope these lines reach you and that you find you will. i received two letters today and one from you lately was last thursday evening and one on monday evening. that was the one that you sent that was directed to royal center and then was re mailed when it was sent on to star city. and like many conventions of the time, she does keep recounting about the way the mail was moving and her kind of duty and being a good letter writer. and she closes with saying, quote, i must close. is there waiting to take the letter to the office. and willie is crying for me to take him. so please write soon as you get this. and that pleading for more letters is a common thread throughout the walters family. several months later, rachel receives a letter from john wesley. he is described as similar to isaac, though he's shorter at five foot six. he's the youngest of the brothers. he's only 20 years old. when he joins the regiment. during the 46 indiana, he mustered into union service in october of 1861 and receives training in indiana before again joining the union army, moving down the mississippi river. he is he and his unit are actively engaged in several of the early battles in that that theater, including a battle for island number ten, which was a fortified island. the confederate army had built up to try to prevent any ships from going by that they fight to to take to open up the way the this specific letter written june 10th, 186 details some of the nonstop campaigning that john wesley had experienced with his unit. and he uses this letter to form the family of wound he had received. he writes, we found them. i found th referring to the confederate army at a place called the champions hill. ere is where i got wounded. a musket ball struck me on my right side, just above the hip. we lay there three weeks. this letter helped dispel some rumors that had reached indiana that he'd actually been killed in the battle champion hill battle that preceded what would be the siege of vicksburg and the the this ability to send that home certainly must have relieved those. and to dispel such a rumor, he also explains in this letter that after being kind of stuck at the on the battlefield for so long, he is eventually moved to a a larger hospital in memphis to recover. he also relays to rachel how glad he was to have received a letter from her and received news from back home. he writes. you also spoke about david. i'm glad you told me where he is. i wrote him a long letter if he gets it. i want you to let me know what he thought of it. so again, this this is another example of just how important this this network is to the brothers. not only are they receiving news from home, but one of the quickest way for them to receive news from the other brothers is to go receive it from from rachel. so they're they're literally using her as kind of the the middle two to get that information back. and forth. he his unit goes on to participate in the siege of vicksburg, as i mentioned. he, however, does not. it takes him some time to recover from the wounds he received at champions hill. he's placed in some roles guarding railroads and whatnot behind the union lines as he recovers from that. but rachel continues to write to isaac and john wesley throughout their service. again, acting as this this nexus. and she, of course, continues to write to david while he's in the field. so this letter that we selected from rachel to david is about a year after that one from john wesley. it's mid-may 1864, and her life is rather busy on the home front. she's again sharing all the news about the family, the health of the neighbors. analking about the union cause. but much of it focus o herself. and there's many things that she's dog. so i'll read you a long p that sheasnd let her words speak for themselves. quote, i'm still trying to tch school. and the prospect begins to look a little fairer. myl average from about 20 to 4 to about . this week. looks a little more encouraging. and this saturday, i' bn covering the corn forapnd about for noon. and i expect to help this afternoon as well. he's got about 18 acres planted and i don't kn much he's gog to really as well. and he's well pleased to see me come home. always runs to mand he says that he's mama's boy and pies boy. and he says the pause down in dixie fightingebs. and so i asked him what he thought about pie and what would rftion when he came home. and he said he thought the pinewood fetch him some little boots. but i'm ready w to go out to the field. and so i must finish this a little while later. and she does too. you. continues the letter the next day on may 15th, this time telling david about visiting his sister martha. she tells them about a letter that she received from his sister emeline and we do have correspondence from both of those sisters in the collection as well. but it's a closing that she uses at the end of this may 15th letter in which she writes again about sort of the receiving the letters and the timeline. and she writes, quote, i will close hoping to hear from you as soon as possible and try to write oftener as i have been trying to do. i'll send you a few stamps in this letter. i will send you more at the time, but i'm afraid you might not get them. and in some ways, some of the web, as we were looking at the letters, there were things that were prescient in many of these at the time that she is writing. and may 14, through 15. david is engaged at the battle of masaka in northern georgia. it's a pretty evenly matched battle between the union and the confederate forces. it actually is an inconclusive battle, but his regiment and his company suffer a number of casualty issues, including the capture of david, which we believe happened on may 14th. it's not until later in may. does rachel receive word about david's capture? and this is all through the auspices of his commanding officer, john louderback, who has taken it upon himself to write a letter before he himself is captured at the next battle that the fifth indiana calvary is engaged in and sent on to the anderson prison, andersonville prison. this letter from ice rachel is written only a few months later and he has obviously learned the information about david's capture from rachel. he responds in this letter to offer his condolences that that david had been captured. as we follow this family through the war, through these letters, this one particularly became quit heartbreaking. isaac'sone shifts dramatically from some of his early missives in the war to. this point. and you can really start to see how not only the campaigns that he's engaged in are wearing on him, but the news from what's happening to his brothers, what's happening to his family is also starting to weigh on him more and more. he he the condolences he offers are as such. quote, i feel very sorry for you that you can't hear from david. you must be on great suspense and you must feel very lonely. but you must look upon bright side of the picture and hope for the best. i think he will turn up all right ime. if the gray backs don't starve to death and i hope they will fail in this if thertake it. think david has a pretty good constitution and will get through. all right. if he is only alive. so again, this just this small, you know, portion of the letter just showcases, again, the suffering that, you know, isaac is feeling for his brother and being so far from home, being unable to know how his brother's doing and that his one connection is rachel. the the war weariness that that isaac is suffering comes through also. and later in this letter, he writes, i think the war will close sometime or never if it never closes, i guess there is no danger of us poor soldiers getting out of a job. i will close for the present, hoping soon to hear from you. and this. the sullen attitude most likely comes from the fact that his unit had not been engaged almost continuously in the siege of petersburg city in richmond, which the union army was attempting to capture. and then capturing richmond, virginia, the capital, the confederacy. so he even writes that he's located in the camp during the siege at that time. so the war is again weighing heavily on isaac as as all the family, as it continues, as the the suffering continues for the family. this letter written about a year later by john lauterbach to rachel wters, is reesents the type of letter that no on went to receive during the war, but so many did. he is writing to racl to inform her of the death of her husband during the civil war. there was no foal way for families to be informed of such matters. oftentimes times, casualties from units would be published in local newspapers, or it was up to a commanding officer to write home to provide such details. lauterbach starts the letter b not weary or troubled. trust in the lord, for he is able to comfort. he continues, i think i am safe in saying that your husband, d.w waers, died in rebel prison about the 10th of february. i saw him about the fifth. he was done unable to help himself. i waited ohim and gave him as much comfort as i could until i was taken down myself. he often spoke of you and his little boy, which he spoke of with a great deaof respect and seem to be waiting wh a great deal of anxiety for the time to come. when the prison doors would be thrown open and he could retn to his loved ones at home. but alas, the small amount of meal that he was allowed was not sufficient for him. i did not see him die myself, but i have been told by competent persons that he died about the time that i have stated. captain lauterbach goes on to provide some basic details, adds rachel, as to how she can start the process to apply for a pension. as a widow, she would be entitled to one, and although she was entitled to one. that process would become a years long time consuming pursuit for her. in part because of duties like captain lauterbach took upon himself that it wasn't a formal situation where there were documentation for it, as he said in a letter, and got her back to the letter. he says he is not completing david's mustering out papers. he's not completing the paperwork for david. and so it's left to rachel to put that together, which this one letter front and back shows us that some of that process went on for four years. the letter on the front side, on the far goes to town over there is rachel writing in response to letter that she had sent previously to the missing soldiers office in washington, d.c. and she's correcting some information that she needs to to have publish the missing soldiers officer was established in 1865 by clara barton soon after, she finishes her medical assistance work with the union army and she sees that this kind of lack of information in a formalized system of telling families about the soldier's status of missing in action, killed in action, and whether they're returning from p.o.w. camps spurs her to start a office that deals with correspondence with veterans and for their families. they devise a way to publicize this by soliciting names from the family to be put into the local newspapers and then soliciting, then the response from veterans to write to the missing soldiers office with any information they may have with their about their comrades. so rachel uses this in a way that is a typical than many of the americans that were writing to the missing soldiers office because unlike some of americans who were looking for their husbands like rachel, were looking for fathers and uncles, she was looking for that information. she already knew. she already knew the outcome for for david what she needed was to have a witness who would be able to put this on paper, that she could secure the money that would support herself and the toddler son willing. so in writing, she wrote to the missing soldiers office to make sure that david's name spelled correctly. they had written to her to say that david walters would be included on one of these roles that would go to the local newspapers. and she corrected them that it had to be david and they flipped the paper over at the office and returned it to her with assurances that, yes, david, w walter's will be listed as a member of the fifth indiana cavalry and it's signed for clara barton in her name by one of the office workers, the missing soldiers office operated for the three years and during that time they connected over 22,000 americans with information about missing soldiers. this took aut00,000 letters that were circulated by the missing soldiers officof inquiries that they were sending out. and abouternal letters like the one that they were sending to rachel, inclunghe one here on their letter stationed that mentions that they e e office of correspondence. and it on this letter they are king the testimony of one of the veterans by the name of john brown, who is also from indiana. and sharing that with rachel, that john brown has informed them that that he saw david die at four in south carolina. this is exactly the kind of information that rachel needed to secure a pension. but upon further work with the pension documents that are in the collection and those that are at the national archives, we know that it wasn't john brown's witness testimony or one of the other letters that we have in the collection, the four through the missing soldiers office, that finally, rachel, the pension there was a third veteran who came forward and gave witness testimony. and so after two years, almost three years of trying, she did secure the pension in september of 1865. sorry, 68. and we know that. only three months later she died, leaving their young son, willy in the care of her parents. samuel ward jr, and her mother sarah. and it's through the pension filing that sarah that rachel did that they were able to support willy with an $8 a month miner's pension. it's those kind of documents that help us put together the story of this family and their experiences through the civil war. and as as rachel is, many parts of this communication network between these brothers, this sisters and other members of their community, what is puzzling in a way, is how did we end up with the letters and how did the walter's family end up with rachel's letters returning from david? and, of course took the efforts of david, certainly to save his letters from rachel. that meant he carried those with him through all the states that he traveled. there's no sign on any of the envelopes that we have in the collection at any point that he say enclosed extra letters of hers and return them back to her. we do have one hint in one of the letters from john lauterbach back now, one where he does inform her of david's death that david's effects are at his own house and she is welcome to come to the lauterbach house and pick up those effects, including a ten case, which i think would have very well preserved these kind of paper records of this family and the words that they exchanged each other, like the mystery of how the letters returned. we, we, we came upon some other mysteries with this this story, with developing this. and one of them was, in fact, the the location of david's death, although we had these affidavits and other testimonies of his death of a prisoner of war camp, there is a headstone located in marietta national cemetery in marietta, georgia, in section a site for 73 that reads david walters company i fifth indiana calvary. and we can assure you there were no other david walters in company i of the fifth indiana calvary. and the site lists the date of death as june 5th, 1864, about three weeks after the date david is reported as captured. so in a time before dog tags dna, there was no way to really identify the dead after a battle other than those who knew them, hopefully being around to do so so. miss ids did happen and it is fully possible that there is somebody else in that grave, but it is still made out to david. so that was something we, you know, we had to to research and puzzle over. we are pretty certain that with the the sheer amount of testimonies that that rachel herself gathered, that, you know, his death did occur in a prisoner of war camp. but it was something to consider that again, there is a grave in georgia. the other item that we couldn't ever locate was, a photograph of any of of the writers of these letters, even though in multiple letters we have them asking for photographs, describing going and getting photographs taken, writing about sending photographs to each other, and then complementing each other photographs. so throughout the letters, we have all of these these comments about photographs of each other. and there are none that we could find. there were the they were none that were included with the donation. there were the family currently did have any they were able to provide us that earlier photo of their son later in life, but nothing from the time period. and when we asked experts in civil war photography, especially at the center for civil war photography, in other places, they mentioned that many photographs not labeled. these were often sent to family members. so why would you label them? but as a result, as soon as those family members passed that that that identity goes with them. so it's not uncommon to have unidentified photographs from the era. and the one that you're looking at right now was recently digitized by library of ress. this is in their collection, and it's simply labeled as an unidentified soldier of the fifth indiana calvary. so this is david's unit. so could that be possibly. but we we just don't know. and although the members of the walter's family are faceless to us now, they're voice still lives on, their story still lives on through the letters they saved and through the letters they wrote, they they documented what it was like to live through this terrible time in. american history and their story represents what many families went through during this time. and it was such a privilege for us to be able to really down into this story and to share it with you all. thank you. thank you. so hoping to take a q&a and i know we have a microphone in the audience because we're also on zoom online. so the microphone will be going around the audience and i know there's also potentially online questions as well. and we're hoping as we're sharing this collection through the book, that many others will come to this collection and bring their own questions about it as tom and i have any questions here. thank you. i have a two part question. first off, can you speak to. digitizing, transcribing this set of letters versus some of the other collections that you've worked through in the past? was this particularly challenging or was this pretty standard? was there any particular challenges with this collection versus others? i might add that with this collection, because of the various letter writers, there is a a sliding scale of difficulty, as we showed you with some of rachel's letters, she has very nice script. her her grammar tends to be kind of higher than most. so transcribing her letters were were on the easier part of that scale. david, on the other hand, from his letters, you can tell that he he was not as proficient in in his writing or his grammar. those proved to be a little more difficult to to pass out. but it did improve through the war. you could tell that as he kind of had practice, that he got better with with with writing home. as we mentioned earlier, several of his letters. we we think we're written by a different hand either john lauterbach or another soldier in his unit. but he does he does write some one of the other aspects of this is almost all of them are written in ink, which did make it easier. pencil has a tendency to smear and just over the years it it can be harder to read but ink helps stay as it is darker and it just allows you to to read a little easier. and in doing the transcriptions we tried to stay as true verbatim to what we found in the letters. so that means a lot of things are not spelled to a standard modern english and we actually kind of would advise people to read them almost aloud as many times. they would have probably been read aloud to share with with other family members and to share this kind of news. this is certainly a families that had gone to school, but for a different amounts of time. we looked at the census records and saw it different times that rachel ward and her siblings had gone to school for various amounts of time, as well as the many siblings in the walter's family. so it does explain a sort of variations in their education level and. so much more of their letters is almost in like an oral tradition about how their their to each other through through these documents. but they're also combining them with the etiquette of letter writing and some of those phrases. so those we tried to preserve. so my second question is so you mention you have about 180 letters in the collection. can you hazard a guess? and how much is we do know for a fact that there are missing letters because they will several of them are referenced. rachel will say in your letter of this date, which we don't have, i would say we have definitive some around maybe 15, 20 that are specifically referenced that we don't have we also don't have any of the letters that rachel sent to isaac or john wesley or the only letters of rachel's we have are the ones that she sent to david. so that kind of her missives to them are missing. so a lot of what she told them, we were we could learn through some of their letters back, you know, in your letter of this date, you mentioned this. so we could get little puzzle pieces of what she had written to them, but not her full letters. and we have about 15 envelopes without the contents. so we know that we have the wrappers, but we don't have what they had written. it is, but it helped us in ways that we use them to figure out where they were at certain times and so it did inform us about how they were traveling, where the brothers were at were at certain times the number of letters that rachel was receiving, as well. so they did fill in some of those gaps, even though we did not have the contents. behind. and it sounds like some of the important of these letters are the envelopes that they came in, the stamps that were on them. was it maybe you mentioned this, but is it common? and why do you do you have some insight as to why they did keep the envelopes? why not just the letters, especially thinking about trying to travel with all of these letters? it's just extra paper that you kind of have to bring with you. so what are your thoughts on that? i think it's partly it's maybe a little bit of let's have a wrapper on the outside to protect these letters as you're carrying them. it does also does become part of the story. and yes, some families choose to just save the contents of the letters and some museums and archives to save the the letters, not the envelopes. and in this case, we have it certainly was when the family was donating it. the first items that they donated, the smithsonian. were seven of the envelopes. and then the letters came a year later, when they were ready to to donate, there was and i think it was partly just for them and for what it does for us. it tells part of that story of who has written on that address, how that moved, and have some of those dates that some of these letters don't include all the dates and places that they were and maybe some of that also helped. rachel, you know, where people were and why she saved some of those. we have a couple coming in online. so the first that i have here is thank you for the wonderful and you mentioned that the letters themselves represent the narrative of the family's wartime experiences as editors. how much work did you have to do to fill in the gaps between the letters, or are there no significant gaps in the collection and it's fairly robust. between 1861 through 1865. from the beginning of the war, and then through the aftermath. what tom and i really tried to do was not intervene too much. we tried to, in the way that we approached the transcriptions, we tried to leave it as verbatim as possible. we used notes to to help identify some places and and people's names that are maybe a little bit harder to read some period terms, but it's the introductory essays that we give that are about each of the that i think fill in the this sort of put it in the context of what's happening in the nation, what's happening in the v.a., what's happening in the community in which rachel lived and the walter's brothers had lived. so i think we filled not many of the gaps. it was pretty small. we most of the wartime experiences, lynn said, was was well-represented in the letters we we did occasionally have to look at records of the units where they may have been to confirm certain things, especially when, for example, when isaac wrote in the camp, the 20th indiana, that that's not really a good. so being able to to kind of say, okay here but again that information was there. we knew they were in the camp for the 23rd year and we just had a pass it out a little bit. most of the information we added would be things kind of more the background things from census records, from genealogical records, things like that, which was not necessarily in the letter. so that was really where we added most. but again, they they did provide a wealth of information that in the letters themselves that that didn't require us to go too deep into that area. and at least one occasion we did correct something to do. we found that rachel had misstated one of hers. and in june of 1864 and as many of us have this sort of moment, she wrote 1863, but none of the events that she's recording matched up with. she talks about someone's death and someone's marriage, which we knew from some of the other letters had actually happened in 1864. so we made a note of that. a couple more here to so has clara barton's missing soldiers office in washington dc been turned into a museum? it is, yes. it is a museum on seventh street. it's part of a complex with the national civil war medicine museum and is is open. and then another common. thank you for the very interesting talk and bringing these letter writers to life. were there any surprises in the letters other than learning about the death or intimate details that would not be expected for that time period. surprises i was when when going through these letters the first time, especially kind of working on the transcripts and whatnot, the bluntness of isaac in his letter that we talked about to to rachel about, you know, david's experience, that kind of caught me off guard. i was i was a little surprised that at how kind of forward he was with that information, especially in a kind of moment where he's trying to be consoling. so i don't know if that was a surprise, but that did that did hit pretty hard, as did captain lauterbach's letter. you know, as you're following along, you're you know, you're almost rooting. and then, you know, to get to that letter, it was it was very, you know, a punch in the gut, if you would, to to suddenly read that again. you you kind of get invested in this family that you're you're following their story. you're seeing, you know, what they're doing, what they're experiencing. rachel often writes about how much she misses david, and he writes about how much he would like to go home, things like that. so to kind of get to that point was, again, kind of a surprise, if you would. i can't think of any surprising details that were shared. yeah, i think this surprises almost in reading them. when you read them for the first time, it's almost put your put you in the experience of being the recipient and and this is all news. so if it's the first time through of reading them, it's as the story unfolds as it had to the recipient. but as many times as we've read it, no surprises are there. but some of the poignant moments certainly do remain with you. and then do any of the letters comment on the literacy or ability ability to write home of other soldiers in the various units or of overcoming those challenges? yes, there's some of those kind of conventions of many letter writers often write about excuse me, for my penmanship very much. that was rachel would do that far more than i would say the brother is or david would do, and she's very conscious of it. once in a while they'll write about the sort of state of the material that you're using. and so sorry about the the ink is not very strong at this time. apologized when they didn't have a stamp. we have a letter from john wesley where he didn't expect to have had a stamp to pay for it. and so rachel would have had to pay for it upon delivery. but we do have that envelope and know that he must have found a stamp at some point. and there are moments where they talk about, of course, the sending and receiving of letters, but there's also moments where we do see them, particularly between david and rachel, start to use similar expressions in similar ways that they're doing. they're there post scripts and talking to each other. so there is certainly a consciousness in how they're writing to each other about letters. and as we mentioned, some of the letters from david are clearly in a different handwriting. so we don't know if he was unable to or if he was self-conscious his writing. but he it is obvious that at some point someone else is writing letters, that he's dictating. but then we do also have letters in his hand. so we don't know if he just didn't have someone who could write for him or if he had finally been taking a chance. but when he kind of starts copying some of rachel's styles, that is in his hand. so it is interesting to see him kind of learning from her letter writing technique in his own letters, and then we have one more. can you talk about the mail delivery system during that time? yeah, for the union forces and americans on the union side, it was pretty much business as usual, except for the mail had stopped being exchanged with the confederate states. so for getting mail to p.o.w. is to those who were trying to cross the line. many americans were using the express companies and there was could go through what were called excuse me, flag of truce points where there would be exchanges of goods, including the mail for the walters and their letters pretty were sort of on that timely convention that they were used to of the mail moving fairly rapidly with the strong railway system in the north and through up to the the front that was done through the post office department, working through what they called special agents who were the intermediaries between the post office department and the military in many ways, the military had assigned most of the mail duties to privates and mail who were taking the mail to and from the headquarters. and and that mail moved fairly rapidly. and at sometimes some surprising moments that would be delivered during combat. but we do know that that there times where the walter's do and other americans and the civil war letters do note about the changes in their their mail system. but for the most part, they're they're fairly open in how they talk about the news of the day. they're not censored letters in any way. the soldier's letters are not censored. so anything they off is what they've self-censored. we have one more comment and it is that david and rachel are my great great great grandparents and this has been a wonderful discussion to join. so thank you, lynn and tom. that's wonderful. thank you. thank you.

Transcripts For CSPAN3 Public Affairs Events 20221018

Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War Letters Between Home And The Front 20221017

now it is my distinct pleasure to introduce this book and its editors. tom and lynn. the walters family letters are here at the national postal museum, and they are really at the heart of this book. and one of the wonderful things about the way that they have organized this book is that the letters really pull you in to a period 160 years ago and help you understand the centrality of the written word, particularly at a time when families are frequently separated for the first time and they have provided the information that you need to not only understand the family networks, but the community networks and the postal network and what's happening geopolitically in the united states during the civil war. so really looking forward to this talk. lynn heidelberg is a curator here at the smithsonian national postal museum. she's specializes in the history of u.s. postal service and has published essays and created several exhibits, specifically in this case on military mail, including mail call, which you can visit out in the gallery floor as well as my fellow soldiers letters from world war one, for which she received the smithson sheehan secretary's research prize in 2018. thomas halon curates the lighter than air collections, including balloons, lamps and airships at the smithsonian national air and space museum. his research focuses on ballooning in the civil war, as well as the use of airships and blimps in america. he is the coauthor of milestones of flight the epic of aviation with the national air and space museum. so in december 1863, rachel ward walters sat down to write a letter from her home in northwestern indiana, and she opened it in a phrase to her husband, who was miles away serving in the fifth indiana calvary. and she wrote, quote, kind and affectionate companion once more. i attempt to address you by the silent language of the pen. four months later, her sister, phoebe ward duncan, used very similar words when she wrote to david as well in keeping up these family connections. and she wrote in april 1864, my dear brother, after a shameful silence, which i beg to pardon you, i once again address you by the silent language of the pen. and although rachel and phoebe say that their language is silence, we're hoping that that through their letters in the collection, that we will talk about tonight, that their words come alive and their expressions that they share with their family, their thoughts and their perspective, in particular during a moment of national strife, and certainly for this family and the individuals within it and the phrases that rachel and phoebe and others used about the silent language of the pen are really embody what people were trying to do with the mail. and to keep up that communication. those kind of phrases were the conventions of the time. they were used to a certain etiquette of letter writing, and it was very widespread. so it was common to to run into such phrases as these. they were commonly taught when at school for reading and writing purposes. and it was a time where more and more people were writing letters. in the mid 19th century, more americans were becoming accustomed to using the mail. it had become far more affordable, all with the reforms of the post office in the mid 19th century, making the postage more affordable and using innovations like the postage stamp which make it far more easy to access. and in that time, the americans had become used to a reliable mail service, that they had become used to a certain timeliness of those letters and they talked to each other through that language of those letters about the timeliness and always making note of when they had received a letter and apologizing if they were delayed. and of course, those kind of delays became far more emotionally compounded when times of war, like the walter's, a family experienced. and so turning to those kind of stop phrases that rachel and phoebe used was a way to sort of get yourself writing and being able to to use some of those customs that everybody was was used to at a time where some of the mail was not flowing as easily as it had before. but the post office department and the military made every effort to keep the personal letters flowing, particularly through the lines of the homefront. and and there was on the front keeping both informed of the reasons why they were fighting and and keeping them in touch with each other. it's these kind of letters that we're sharing through this collection tonight that's here at the national postal museum. and it came to us in to installments from the walter's family of of indiana. they donated it to the smithsonian in the first few items that came to the smithsonian in 1964, donated by arthur walters, the grandson of david and walter' and his daughter, june walters. leonard donat bulk of the collection of the letters in 1991. the picture here is of willard and amelia. walter's this willard being the son of david and rachel walters. so it's through their family line that we have these letters to share with you and share with american public in this donation. it becomes clear why the walter's family valued these letters. there's 180 letters and papers, mostly of the use of envelopes that se way te mail travel, the cost of that mail. when the address had to chan to find somebody who had relocated and ttmarks of the work that the post office was doing to to procese mail. we have about 100 of those envelopes and about 80 or so letters and a few items of ephemera that the family enclosed while trying to communicate with each other, including the item in the middle here, which is a special order that was issued in 1863, and that david had chosen to enclose in this pe with his letter that's pictured. and this was at a time while david was serving in kentucky, a border state, and working with the fidiana calvary secure a peace in the area. in particular, this special declared martial law in the counties so that the state election could go along peacefully. so this is one of the kind of items that he chose to share with his wife, to let her know the kind of experiences that he was having. and then these passed through the family and into the collection. so we're fortunate to have not only their letters and their words, but also these kind of mementos that they shared, even some small souvenirs, but also some of the pension documents that the family worked with to to work in the aftermath of the war. the entire collection actually spans from the beginning of the war, and it just pre-war of 1859, with a few letters with rachel beginning the relationship with david just before they were married. and it closes with her letters. in 1868. through this wonderful collection. we were able to really start to pull out the details, not only about the experience during the war, but but also the experience that each of these different family members, each of these different writers had. and we started by completing an accurate transcription of the letters. and then we placed them in chronological order. and once we did that, they were no longer just 180 pieces of individual pieces of mail and envelopes. but there was a story. there was a narrative that that evolved from that. we were really able to see conversations start to develop the these family members would write a letter and someone would respond to questions that were were sent in that. and it really, again, gave them a life that they they you didn't realize before that time. you really start to see connections form this network that's created in this family of letter writers so that they could keep up with what was going on and understand what experience each of them is having. the although there are several writers in the collection that only have a few mentions like phoebe, as lynn mentioned, the collection really consists of these five main writers. they're the ones that really are the the heart and soul of the collection. first, weavrachel jane ward as lynn mentioned, she marries david walters on december 16th, 1860, becoming rhewalters. she becomes this nexus of this mmication hub. she is one of the stiterate of all the writers and in fact, works as a schoolteacher a year later. and she really is the one that the brothers and brother, her brothers in law and her husband are writing to her. and then she's disseminating that information back to the other brothers and also including messages from what's going on at home, you know, in their county or in their individual houses and anything that will help them stay connected to their home. so she becomes a critical element of this. this group of of letters. next, we have david walters, her husband, who, as lynn mentioned, joined t fth indiana calvary. he serves generally in the cera area of the country. we have isaac walters, who is one of the fir othe brothers to join up. he joinshe0th indiana infantry. he serves along the east coast in the eastern theater of the war, mostly in virginia. we have john wesley walters, the youngest of the brothers. he joins the 46th indiana infantry and he's stationed in, at the time, the western theater, which is actually the mississippi river. and these three brothers are literally sent to the three corners of the war. they're as geographically separate as they can be. and it only makes that network of communication even more important. and then finally, we have john louderback. he's in david's company. he eventually becomes the commanding officer of david's company. but through his letters, we were able to decipher that some of david's early letters are most likely written by him. so most likely dictated by david. but written by john louderback to send messages home and the as we follow these letters through the conflicts, you really start to see the individual personalities come through. you see different penmanship, different grammar, different phrases that are used by the writers. for example, this is one of rachel's letters. she uses a blue ink almos exclusively through the war. there's a few that are not. but. t e's really this is this is one of the ways u uld quickly tell that it was o o rachel's letters. and here she draws a picture of a a u.s. flag with the words union forever on it. this is the only one that she illustrated. but again, it it gives it such a personal touch. it it's so important to to see who these people were, what, you know, why were they writing these letters and it's it again, they really become these individuals instead of just, you know, kind of random pieces of paper. so although we have numerous letters in the collection, we've selected a few highlights, too, to present to you tonight to show you again who who this family was, who, who these people were. so the first one we have here is from isaac walters. he is described as being five foot ten inches with dark hair and gray eyes, a very basic description at the time. when he joins up, he's unmarried. he's just shy of his 29th birthday. he's the first of the walters brothers to join the union army. he joins company f of the 20th indiana. as we mentioned, he officially musters in on july 22nd, 1861. and this is the first letter that we have in the collection. the first one that he sent home, dated october 17th, 1861. so between that time, he is in traingamp in indiana before his unit is again shipped out to the east coast. and he actually ndsimself in the eastern theater of war along some othcoastalslands of north carolina. the union makes an effort early in the war to capture some of those islands, to protect naval assets that were going to be going up and down the coast. and he is involved in some of these very early campaigns. and he he also so in this letter, one of the first things he specifically mentions is news that he had received most likely from rachel in a previous tter, which is not in the colltion. and he writes about he mentions news from home andays, quote, i s a little surprised to hear that you had an air so soon, but i hope you will live and do well in order tt dave will have somedy to set up corn for him. i fancy his name very much. i believe it is the very name that i would have given him myself. so what he's responding to is the fact that david and rachel had had a son, willard, who you'd seen in that previous picture. and they had obviously just informed isaac of his birth. so, again, you're already starting to see this network forming the the importance of these letters as they're sharing information back and forth. isaac goes on to give some detail about what he's experienced back to the family, describing his experiences in north carolina. he writes, there was nearly half of the regiment taking medicine at the present time, and there is still more taking sick. this is a very sickly whole. so that's not how most people would describe hatteras nowadays. but at the time this was what he experienced. there was great sickness there and his regiment really suffered. why they were there. so this really is a the start of a grueling campaign for the 20th indiana. they end up fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the civil war. and isaac takes part in many of them. so this kind of beginning stage of the war for him, definitely leads to to more serious combat later. almost a year after the letter by isaac. two of his brothers join up. they both fall into, including the oldest brother of the walter's eli walter's, who joins with isaac in the 20 at the indiana. their third brother in line wine. david walter's joins in september of 1862 with the fifth indiana calvary. and it's shortly thereafter that he reports to camp joe reynolds in indianapolis over 100 miles from his home, leaving his wife and his infant son. from the records, we know a little bit about david walters and his time with the fifth indiana calvary. we find a little bit about his past in the military records as well, that he was a farmer, that he was 23 years of three years of age when he volunteered that like his brother isaac, he was also five foot ten, had a dark complexion and dark hair and brown eyes. so those are the only ways that we have to picture. david, other than his letters. we do know that once he reached indianapolis, he was soon put through the paces of drilling. and he writes this to his wife about this. this would prepare him with the fifth indiana calvary and the duties that they would soon have through the middle of the country. and later in the war, preparing for the campaign through georgia at the time that he writes this in october. first, he writes to his wife about some of the excitement of his having with these new events and having joined and becoming a soldier. he writes, quote, were drilling about as strong as ever we can. and yesterday, there was about 00 on drill. at one time. and today we had about the same number of soldiers and about 30 to 40000 spectators. we had the biggest time today that we had since i've been here. we had a regular sham battle and fired about 25 rounds apiece. and there was infantry and calvary and two cannon. and the engagement. and there was also a general two of you and the governor. and he goes on to tell his wife the reasons why he had volunteered and the moment he writes, i quote, i'm sorry that your put so much trouble with our things. it can't be help now. and i feel i'm doing my duty to help and maintain the laws of our country and put down the wicked rebellion. it's one of the few times in the series of about 18 letters we have in the collection that he discusses the reason why he has joined up and in a way, the void that he enclosed this kind of echoes what he is saying in e letter with the triotic symbols that it has on it. at the center of it is a american eagle and the seal of the u.s. around it are 34 pennants with abbreviations for 34 states, including all of the states that had recently seceded during the war. and just a few days time, his wife was writing a letter at home and 20 year old and raising their one year old willie. she was writing about her new experience of moving from royals center in their home that she had shared with david to star city closer to some of her other family members. she discusses going to church and the things about farming. and again, as tom pointed out, using her blue ink, that was very common. this is one of the letters that is available to see in the gallery this evening and shows this side of the page of a two sided page. well worn and likely to have been re read as she wrote to david about what was going on at home. she wrote, i quote, william, he's not very well and he's cutting his teeth, which makes him very fretful, but he's getting better. so he can go down and play a little. and i hope these lines reach you and that you find you will. i received two letters today and one from you lately was last thursday evening and one on monday evening. that was the one that you sent that was directed to royal center and then was re mailed when it was sent on to star city. and like many conventions of the time, she does keep recounting about the way the mail was moving and her kind of duty and being a good letter writer. and she closes with saying, quote, i must close. is there waiting to take the letter to the office. and willie is crying for me to take him. so please write soon as you get this. and that pleading for more letters is a common thread throughout the walters family. several months later, rachel receives a letter from john wesley. he is described as similar to isaac, though he's shorter at five foot six. he's the youngest of the brothers. he's only 20 years old. when he joins the regiment. during the 46 indiana, he mustered into union service in october of 1861 and receives training in indiana before again joining the union army, moving down the mississippi river. he is he and his unit are actively engaged in several of the early battles in that that theater, including a battle for island number ten, which was a fortified island. the confederate army had built up to try to prevent any ships from going by that they fight to to take to open up the way the this specific letter written june 10th, 1863. details some of the nonstop campaigning that john wesley had experienced with his unit. and he uses this letter to inform the family of wound he had received. he writes, we found them. i found them referring to the confederate army at a place called t champions hill. there is where i got wounded. a musket ball struck me on my right side, just above the hip. we lay there three weeks. this letter helped dispel some rumors that had reached indiana that he'd actually been killed in the battle champion hill battle that preceded what would be the siege of vicksburg and the the this ability to send that home certainly must have relieved those. and to dispel such a rumor, he also explains in this letter that after being kind of stuck at the on the battlefield for so long, he is eventually moved to a a larger hospital in memphis to recover. he also relays to rachel how glad he was to have received a letter from her and received news from back home. he writes. you also spoke about david. i'm glad you told me where he is. i wrote him a long letter if he gets it. i want you to let me know what he thought of it. so again, this this is another example of just how important this this network is to the brothers. not only are they receiving news from home, but one of the quickest way for them to receive news from the other brothers is to go receive it from from rachel. so they're they're literally using her as kind of the the middle two to get that information back. and forth. he his unit goes on to participate in the siege of vicksburg, as i mentioned. he, however, does not. it takes him some time to recover from the wounds he received at champions hill. he's placed in some roles guarding railroads and whatnot behind the union lines as he recovers from that. but rachel continues to write to isaac and john wesley throughout their service. again, acting as this this nexus. and she, of course, continues to write to david while he's in the field. so this letter that we selected from rachel to david is about a year after that one from john wesley. it's mid-may 1864, and her life is rather busy on the home front. she's again sharing all the news about the family, the health of the neighbors. and is talking about the union use. but much of it focuses on herself. and there's manyhis that she's doing. so i'll read you a long passage that she has and let her words speak for themselves. quote, i'm still trying to teach school. and the prospect begins to look lile fairer. my school average frombo 20 to 4 to about 28. this week. it looks a little more encouraging. and this saturday, i've been covering the corn for pap and about for noon. and i expect to help this afternoon asel he's got about 18 acres plte and i don't know how much he's going to plant really as well. and he's well pleo see me come home. we always runs to me and he says that he's mama'boand pies y. and he says the pause down in dixie fighting rebels. and so i asked him what he thought aboupiand what would perfection when he came home. and he said tught the piwo fetch him some little but i'm ready now to go out to the field. and so i must finish this a little while later. and she does too. you. continues the letter the next day on may 15th, this time telling david about visiting his sister martha. she tells them about a letter that she received from his sister emeline and we do have correspondence from both of those sisters in the collection as well. but it's a closing that she uses at the end of this may 15th letter in which she writes again about sort of the receiving the letters and the timeline. and she writes, quote, i will close hoping to hear from you as soon as possible and try to write oftener as i have been trying to do. i'll send you a few stamps in this letter. i will send you more at the time, but i'm afraid you might not get them. and in some ways, some of the web, as we were looking at the letters, there were things that were prescient in many of these at the time that she is writing. and may 14, through 15. david is engaged at the battle of masaka in northern georgia. it's a pretty evenly matched battle between the union and the confederate forces. it actually is an inconclusive battle, but his regiment and his company suffer a number of casualty issues, including the capture of david, which we believe happened on may 14th. it's not until later in may. does rachel receive word about david's capture? and this is all through the auspices of his commanding officer, john louderback, who has taken it upon himself to write a letter before he himself is captured at the next battle that the fifth indiana calvary is engaged in and sent on to the anderson prison, andersonville prison. this letter from ice rachel is written only a few months later and he has obviously learned the information about david's capture from rachel. he responds in this letter to offer his condolences that that david had been captured. as we follow this family through the war, through these letters, this one parcularly became quite heartbreaking. isaac's tone shifts dramatically from some of his early ms in the war to. to this point. and you can really start to see how not only tpaigns that he's engaged in are wearing on him, but the news from what's happening to his brothers, what's happening to his family is also starting to weigh on him more and more. he he the condolences he offers are as such. quote, i feel very sorry for you that you can't hear from david. you must be on great suspense d you must feel very lonely. but you must look upon the bright side of the picture and hope for the best. i think he will turn up all right some time. if the gray backs don't starve to death and i hope thl fail in this if they undertake it. i think david has a pretty good constitutionndill get through. all right. if he is only alive. so again, this just this small, you know, portion of the letter just showcases, again, the suffering that, you know, isaac is feeling for his brother and being so far from home, being unable to know how his brother's doing and that his one connection is rachel. the the war weariness that that isaac is suffering comes through also. and later in this letter, he writes, i think the war will close sometime or never if it never closes, i guess there is no danger of us poor soldiers getting out of a job. i will close for the present, hoping soon to hear from you. and this. the sullen attitude most likely comes from the fact that his unit had not been engaged almost continuously in the siege of petersburg city in richmond, which the union army was attempting to capture. and then capturing richmond, virginia, the capital, the confederacy. so he even writes that he's located in the camp during the siege at that time. so the war is again weighing heavily on isaac as as all the family, as it continues, as the the suffering continues for the family. this letter written about a year later by john lauterbach to rachel walters, is represents the type of letter tha no one went to receive during the war, but so many did. he is writing to rachel to inform her of the death of her sbd during the civil war. there was no formal way for families to be informed of such matters. oftentimes times, casualties from units would be published in local newspapers, or it was up to a commanding officer to write home to provide such details. lauterbach starts the letter b not weary or oubled. trust in the lord, for he is able to comfort. he continues, i think i am saf in saying that your husband, d.w walters, died in rebel prison about the 10th of february. i saw him about the fifth. he was done unableo help himself. i waited on him and gave him as much comfort as i could untii was taken down myself. he often spoke of you and his littleoy, which he oke of with a great deal of respect and seemed to be waiting with a great deal of anxiety for the time to me. when the prison doors wou be thrown open and he could return to his loved ones at home. but alas, th small amount of meal that he was allowed was not sufficient for him. i did not see him die myself, but i have been told by competent persons that he died about the time that i have stated. captain lauterbach goes on to provide some basic details, adds rachel, as to how she can start the process to apply for a pension. as a widow, she would be entitled to one, and although she was entitled to one. that process would become a years long time consuming pursuit for her. in part because of duties like captain lauterbach took upon himself that it wasn't a formal situation where there were documentation for it, as he said in a letter, and got her back to the letter. he says he is not completing david's mustering out papers. he's not completing the paperwork for david. and so it's left to rachel to put that together, which this one letter front and back shows us that some of that process went on for four years. the letter on the front side, on the far goes to town over there is rachel writing in response to a letter that she had sent previously to the missing soldiersffice in washington, d.c. and she's correcting some information that she needs to to have publish the missing soldiers officer was established in 1865 by clara barton soon after, she finiss her medical assistance work with the union army and she sees that this kind of lack of information in a formalized system of telling families about the soldier's atus of missing in action, killed in action, and whether they're returning from p.o.w. camps spurs her to start a office that deals with correspondence with veterans and for their families. they devise a way to publicize this by soliciting names from the family to be put into the local newspapers and then soliciting, then the response from veterans to write to the missing soldiers office with any information they may have with their about their comrades. so rachel uses this in a way that is a typical than many of the americans that were writing to the missing soldiers office because unlike some of americans who were looking for their husbands like rachel, were looking for fathers and uncles, she was looking for that information. she already knew. she already knew the outcome for for david what she needed was to have a witness who would be able to put this on paper, that she could secure the money that would support herself and the toddler son willing. so in writing, she wrote to the missing soldiers office to make sure that david's name spelled correctly. they had written to her to say that david walters would be included on one of these roles that would go to the local newspapers. and she corrected them that it had to be david and they flipped the paper over at the office and returned it to her with assurances that, yes, david, w walter's will be listed as a member of the fifth indiana cavalry and it's signed for clara barton in her name by one of the office workers, the missing soldiers office operated for the three years and during that time they connected over 22,000 americans with information about miin ldrs. this took about 100,000 letters that were circulated by the missing soldiers office of inquiries that they were sending out. and about personal letters like the one that they we sding to rachel, including the one here on their letter statied that mentions that they are the office of correspondence. d it on this letter they are taking the testimony of one of the veterans by the name ofoh brown, who is also from indiana. and sharing that with rachel, that john brown has informed them that that he saw david die at four in south carolina. this is exactly the kind of information that rachel needed to secure a pension. but upon further work with the pension documents that are in the collection and those that are at the national archives, we know that it wasn't john brown's witness testimony or one of the other letters that we have in the collection, the four through the missing soldiers office, that finally, rachel, the pension there was a third veteran who came forward and gave witness testimony. and so after two years, almost three years of trying, she did secure the pension in september of 1865. sorry, 68. and we know that. only three months later she died, leaving their young son, willy in the care of her parents. samuel ward jr, and her mother sarah. and it's through the pension filing that sarah that rachel did that they were able to support willy with an $8 a month miner's pension. it's those kind of documents that help us put together the story of this family and their experiences through the civil war. and as as rachel is, many parts of this communication network between these brothers, this sisters and other members of their community, what is puzzling in a way, is how did we end up with the letters and how did the walter's family end up with rachel's letters returning from david? and, of course took the efforts of david, certainly to save his letters from rachel. that meant he carried those with him through all the states that he traveled. there's no sign on any of the envelopes that we have in the collection at any point that he say enclosed extra letters of hers and return them back to her. we do have one hint in one of the letters from john lauterbach back now, one where he does inform her of david's death that david's effects are at his own house and she is welcome to come to the lauterbach house and pick up those effects, including a ten case, which i think would have very well preserved these kind of paper records of this family and the words that they exchanged each other, like the mystery of how the letters returned. we, we, we came upon some other mysteries with this this story, with developing this. and one of them was, in fact, the the location of david's death, although we had these affidavits and other testimonies of his death of a prisoner of war camp, there is a headstone located in marietta national cemetery in marietta, georgia, in section a site for 73 that reads david walters company i fifth indiana calvary. and we can assure you there were no other david walters in company i of the fifth indiana calvary. and the site lists the date of death as june 5th, 1864, about three weeks after the date david is reported as captured. so in a time before dog tags dna, there was no way to really identify the dead after a battle other than those who knew them, hopefully being around to do so so. miss ids did happen and it is fully possible that there is somebody else in that grave, but it is still made out to david. so that was something we, you know, we had to to research and puzzle over. we are pretty certain that with the the sheer amount of testimonies that that rachel herself gathered, that, you know, his death did occur in a prisoner of war camp. but it was something to consider that again, there is a grave in georgia. the other item that we couldn't ever locate was, a photograph of any of of the writers of these letters, even though in multiple letters we have them asking for photographs, describing going and getting photographs taken, writing about sending photographs to each other, and then complementing each other photographs. so throughout the letters, we have all of these these comments about photographs of each other. and there are none that we could find. there were the they were none that were included with the donation. there were the family currently did have any they were able to provide us that earlier photo of their son later in life, but nothing from the time period. and when we asked experts in civil war photography, especially at the center for civil war photography, in other places, they mentioned that many photographs not labeled. these were often sent to family members. so why would you label them? but as a result, as soon as those family members passed that that that identity goes with them. so it's not uncommon to have unidentified photographs from the era. and the one that you're looking at right now was recently digitized by library of congress. this is in their collection, and it's simpeled as an unidentified soldier of the fifth incalvary. so this is david's unit. so could that be possibly. but we we just don't know. and although the members of the walter's family are faceless to us now, they're voice still lives on, their story still lives on through the letters they saved and through the letters they wrote, they they documented what it was like to live through this terrible time in. american history and their story represents what many families went through during this time. and it was such a privilege for us to be able to really down into this story and to share it with you all. thank you. thank you. so hoping to take a q&a and i know we have a microphone in the audience because we're also on zoom online. so the microphone will be going around the audience and i know there's also potentially online questions as well. and we're hoping as we're sharing this collection through the book, that many others will come to this collection and bring their own questions about it as tom and i have any questions here. thank you. i have a two part question. first off, can you speak to. digitizing, transcribing this set of letters versus some of the other collections that you've worked through in the past? was this particularly challenging or was this pretty standard? was there any particular challenges with this collection versus others? i might add that with this collection, because of the various letter writers, there is a a sliding scale of difficulty, as we showed you with some of rachel's letters, she has very nice script. her her grammar tends to be kind of higher than most. so transcribing her letters were were on the easier part of that scale. david, on the other hand, from his letters, you can tell that he he was not as proficient in in his writing or his grammar. those proved to be a little more difficult to to pass out. but it did improve through the war. you could tell that as he kind of had practice, that he got better with with with writing home. as we mentioned earlier, several of his letters. we we think we're written by a different hand either john lauterbach or another soldier in his unit. but he does he does write some one of the other aspects of this is almost all of them are written in ink, which did make it easier. pencil has a tendency to smear and just over the years it it can be harder to read but ink helps stay as it is darker and it just allows you to to read a little easier. and in doing the transcriptions we tried to stay as true verbatim to what we found in the letters. so that means a lot of things are not spelled to a standard modern english and we actually kind of would advise people to read them almost aloud as many times. they would have probably been read aloud to share with with other family members and to share this kind of news. this is certainly a families that had gone to school, but for a different amounts of time. we looked at the census records and saw it different times that rachel ward and her siblings had gone to school for various amounts of time, as well as the many siblings in the walter's family. so it does explain a sort of variations in their education level and. so much more of their letters is almost in like an oral tradition about how their their to each other through through these documents. but they're also combining them with the etiquette of letter writing and some of those phrases. so those we tried to preserve. so my second question is so you mention you have about 180 letters in the collection. can you hazard a guess? and how much is we do know for a fact that there are missing letters because they will several of them are referenced. rachel will say in your letter of this date, which we don't have, i would say we have definitive some around maybe 15, 20 that are specifically referenced that we don't have we also don't have any of the letters that rachel sent to isaac or john wesley or the only letters of rachel's we have are the ones that she sent to david. so that kind of her missives to them are missing. so a lot of what she told them, we were we could learn through some of their letters back, you know, in your letter of this date, you mentioned this. so we could get little puzzle pieces of what she had written to them, but not her full letters. and we have about 15 envelopes without the contents. so we know that we have the wrappers, but we don't have what they had written. it is, but it helped us in ways that we use them to figure out where they were at certain times and so it did inform us about how they were traveling, where the brothers were at were at certain times the number of letters that rachel was receiving, as well. so they did fill in some of those gaps, even though we did not have the contents. behind. and it sounds like some of the important of these letters are the envelopes that they came in, the stamps that were on them. was it maybe you mentioned this, but is it common? and why do you do you have some insight as to why they did keep the envelopes? why not just the letters, especially thinking about trying to travel with all of these letters? it's just extra paper that you kind of have to bring with you. so what are your thoughts on that? i think it's partly it's maybe a little bit of let's have a wrapper on the outside to protect these letters as you're carrying them. it does also does become part of the story. and yes, some families choose to just save the contents of the letters and some museums and archives to save the the letters, not the envelopes. and in this case, we have it certainly was when the family was donating it. the first items that they donated, the smithsonian. were seven of the envelopes. and then the letters came a year later, when they were ready to to donate, there was and i think it was partly just for them and for what it does for us. it tells part of that story of who has written on that address, how that moved, and have some of those dates that some of these letters don't include all the dates and places that they were and maybe some of that also helped. rachel, you know, where people were and why she saved some of those. we have a couple coming in online. so the first that i have here is thank you for the wonderful and you mentioned that the letters themselves represent the narrative of the family's wartime experiences as editors. how much work did you have to do to fill in the gaps between the letters, or are there no significant gaps in the collection and it's fairly robust. between 1861 through 1865. from the beginning of the war, and then through the aftermath. what tom and i really tried to do was not intervene too much. we tried to, in the way that we approached the transcriptions, we tried to leave it as verbatim as possible. we used notes to to help identify some places and and people's names that are maybe a little bit harder to read some period terms, but it's the introductory essays that we give that are about each of the that i think fill in the this sort of put it in the context of what's happening in the nation, what's happening in the v.a., what's happening in the community in which rachel lived and the walter's brothers had lived. so i think we filled not many of the gaps. it was pretty small. we most of the wartime experiences, lynn said, was was well-represented in the letters we we did occasionally have to look at records of the units where they may have been to confirm certain things, especially when, for example, when isaac wrote in the camp, the 20th indiana, that that's not really a good. so being able to to kind of say, okay here but again that information was there. we knew they were in the camp for the 23rd year and we just had a pass it out a little bit. most of the information we added would be things kind of more the background things from census records, from genealogical records, things like that, which was not necessarily in the letter. so that was really where we added most. but again, they they did provide a wealth of information that in the letters themselves that that didn't require us to go too deep into that area. and at least one occasion we did correct something to do. we found that rachel had misstated one of hers. and in june of 1864 and as many of us have this sort of moment, she wrote 1863, but none of the events that she's recording matched up with. she talks about someone's death and someone's marriage, which we knew from some of the other letters had actually happened in 1864. so we made a note of that. a couple more here to so has clara barton's missing soldiers office in washington dc been turned into a museum? it is, yes. it is a museum on seventh street. it's part of a complex with the national civil war medicine museum and is is open. and then another common. thank you for the very interesting talk and bringing these letter writers to life. were there any surprises in the letters other than learning about the death or intimate details that would not be expected for that time period. surprises i was when when going through these letters the first time, especially kind of working on the transcripts and whatnot, the bluntness of isaac in his letter that we talked about to to rachel about, you know, david's experience, that kind of caught me off guard. i was i was a little surprised that at how kind of forward he was with that information, especially in a kind of moment where he's trying to be consoling. so i don't know if that was a surprise, but that did that did hit pretty hard, as did captain lauterbach's letter. you know, as you're following along, you're you know, you're almost rooting. and then, you know, to get to that letter, it was it was very, you know, a punch in the gut, if you would, to to suddenly read that again. you you kind of get invested in this family that you're you're following their story. you're seeing, you know, what they're doing, what they're experiencing. rachel often writes about how much she misses david, and he writes about how much he would like to go home, things like that. so to kind of get to that point was, again, kind of a surprise, if you would. i can't think of any surprising details that were shared. yeah, i think this surprises almost in reading them. when you read them for the first time, it's almost put your put you in the experience of being the recipient and and this is all news. so if it's the first time through of reading them, it's as the story unfolds as it had to the recipient. but as many times as we've read it, no surprises are there. but some of the poignant moments certainly do remain with you. and then do any of the letters comment on the literacy or ability ability to write home of other soldiers in the various units or of overcoming those challenges? yes, there's some of those kind of conventions of many letter writers often write about excuse me, for my penmanship very much. that was rachel would do that far more than i would say the brother is or david would do, and she's very conscious of it. once in a while they'll write about the sort of state of the material that you're using. and so sorry about the the ink is not very strong at this time. apologized when they didn't have a stamp. we have a letter from john wesley where he didn't expect to have had a stamp to pay for it. and so rachel would have had to pay for it upon delivery. but we do have that envelope and know that he must have found a stamp at some point. and there are moments where they talk about, of course, the sending and receiving of letters, but there's also moments where we do see them, particularly between david and rachel, start to use similar expressions in similar ways that they're doing. they're there post scripts and talking to each other. so there is certainly a consciousness in how they're writing to each other about letters. and as we mentioned, some of the letters from david are clearly in a different handwriting. so we don't know if he was unable to or if he was self-conscious his writing. but he it is obvious that at some point someone else is writing letters, that he's dictating. but then we do also have letters in his hand. so we don't know if he just didn't have someone who could write for him or if he had finally been taking a chance. but when he kind of starts copying some of rachel's styles, that is in his hand. so it is interesting to see him kind of learning from her letter writing technique in his own letters, and then we have one more. can you talk about the mail delivery system during that time? yeah, for the union forces and americans on the union side, it was pretty much business as usual, except for the mail had stopped being exchanged with the confederate states. so for getting mail to p.o.w. is to those who were trying to cross the line. many americans were using the express companies and there was could go through what were called excuse me, flag of truce points where there would be exchanges of goods, including the mail for the walters and their letters pretty were sort of on that timely convention that they were used to of the mail moving fairly rapidly with the strong railway system in the north and through up to the the front that was done through the post office department, working through what they called special agents who were the intermediaries between the post office department and the military in many ways, the military had assigned most of the mail duties to privates and mail who were taking the mail to and from the headquarters. and and that mail moved fairly rapidly. and at sometimes some surprising moments that would be delivered during combat. but we do know that that there times where the walter's do and other americans and the civil war letters do note about the changes in their their mail system. but for the most part, they're they're fairly open in how they talk about the news of the day. they're not censored letters in any way. the soldier's letters are not censored. so anything they off is what they've self-censored. we have one more comment and it is that david and rachel are my great great great grandparents and this has been a wonderful discussion to join. so thank you, lynn and tom. that's wonderful. thank you. thank you. well, thank you for coming to our panel this morning

Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War Letters Between Home And The Front 20221016

about the way that they have organized this book is that the letters really pull you in to a period 160 years ago and help you understand the centrality of the written word, particularly at a time when families are frequently separated for the first time and they have provided the information that you need to not only understand the family networks, but the community networks and the postal network and what's happening geopolitically in the united states during the civil war. so really looking forward to this talk. lynn heidelberg is a curator here at the smithsonian national postal museum. she's specializes in the history of u.s. postal service and has published essays and created several exhibits, specifically in this case on military mail, including mail call, which you can visit out in the gallery floor as well as my fellow soldiers letters from world war one, for which she received the smithson sheehan secretary's research prize in 2018. thomas halon curates the lighter than air collections, including balloons, lamps and airships at the smithsonian national air and space museum. his research focuses on ballooning in the civil war, as well as the use of airships and blimps in america. he is the coauthor of milestones of flight the epic of aviation with the national air and space museum. so in december 1863, rachel ward walters sat down to write a letter from her home in northwestern indiana, and she opened it in a phrase to her husband, who was miles away serving in the fifth indiana calvary. and she wrote, quote, kind and affectionate companion once more. i attempt to address you by the silent language of the pen. four months later, her sister, phoebe ward duncan, used very similar words when she wrote to david as well in keeping up these family connections. and she wrote in april 1864, my dear brother, after a shameful silence, which i beg to pardon you, i once again address you by the silent language of the pen. and although rachel and phoebe say that their language is silence, we're hoping that that through their letters in the collection, that we will talk about tonight, that their words come alive and their expressions that they share with their family, their thoughts and their perspective, in particular during a moment of national strife, and certainly for this family and the individuals within it and the phrases that rachel and phoebe and others used about the silent language of the pen are really embody what people were trying to do with the mail. and to keep up that communication. those kind of phrases were the conventions of the time. they were used to a certain etiquette of letter writing, and it was very widespread. so it was common to to run into such phrases as these. they were commonly taught when at school for reading and writing purposes. and it was a time where more and more people were writing letters. in the mid 19th century, more americans were becoming accustomed to using the mail. it had become far more affordable, all with the reforms of the post office in the mid 19th century, making the postage more affordable and using innovations like the postage stamp which make it far more easy to access. and in that time, the americans had become used to a reliable mail service, that they had become used to a certain timeliness of those letters and they talked to each other through that language of those letters about the timeliness and always making note of when they had received a letter and apologizing if they were delayed. and of course, those kind of delays became far more emotionally compounded when times of war, like the walter's, a family experienced. and so turning to those kind of stop phrases that rachel and phoebe used was a way to sort of get yourself writing and being able to to use some of those customs that everybody was was used to at a time where some of the mail was not flowing as easily as it had before. but the post office department and the military made every effort to keep the personal letters flowing, particularly through the lines of the homefront. and and there was on the front keeping both informed of the reasons why they were fighting and and keeping them in touch with each other. it's these kind of letters that we're sharing through this collection tonight that's here at the national postal museum. and it came to us in to installments from the walter's family of of indiana. they donated it to the smithsonian in the first few items that came to the smithsonian in 1964, donated by arthur walters, the grandson of david and chel walter's, and his daughter, june walters. leonard donat the bulk of the collection of the letters in 1991. the picture here is of willard and amelia. walter's this willard being the son of david and rachel walters. so it's through their family line that we have these letters to share with you and share with american public in this donation. it becomes clear why the walter's family valued these letters. there's 180 letters and papers, mostly of the use of envelopes that show the way tt the mail travel, the cost of that mail. when the address had to chan, to find somebody who had relocated and t postmarks of the work that the post office was doing to to proce those mail. we have about 100 of those envelopes and about 80 or so letters and a few items of ephemera that the family enclosed while trying to communicate with each other, including the item in the middle here, which is a special order that was issued in 1863, and that david had chosen to enclose in this velope with his letter that's pictured. and thiswas serving in kentuckya border state, and working with the fih indiana calvaryo secure a peace in the area. in particular, this special der declared martial law in the counties so that the state election could go along peacefully. so this is one of the kind of items that he chose to share with his wife, to let her know the kind of experiences that he was having. and then these passed through the family and into the collection. so we're fortunate to have not only their letters and their words, but also these kind of mementos that they shared, even some small souvenirs, but also some of the pension documents that the family worked with to to work in the aftermath of the war. the entire collection actually spans from the beginning of the war, and it just pre-war of 1859, with a few letters with rachel beginning the relationship with david just before they were married. and it closes with her letters. in 1868. through this wonderful collection. we were able to really start to pull out the details, not only about the experience during the war, but but also the experience that each of these different family members, each of these different writers had. and we started by completing an accurate transcription of the letters. and then we placed them in chronological order. and once we did that, they were no longer just 180 pieces of individual pieces of mail and envelopes. but there was a story. there was a narrative that that evolved from that. we were really able to see conversations start to develop the these family members would write a letter and someone would respond to questions that were were sent in that. and it really, again, gave them a life that they they you didn't realize before that time. you really start to see connections form this network that's created in this family of letter writers so that they could keep up with what was going on and understand what experience each of them is having. the although there are several writers in the collection that only have a few mentions like phoebe, as lynn mentioned, the collection really consists of these five main writers. they're the ones that really are the the heart and soul of the collection. first, we have rachel jane ward as lynn mentioned, she marries david walters on december 16th, 1860, becoming rachel walters. she becomes this nexus of this communication hub. she is one of the most literate of all the writers and in fact, works as a schoolteacher a year later. and she really is the one that the brothers and brother, her brothers in law and her husband are writing to her. and then she's disseminating that information back to the other brothers and also including messages from what's going on at home, you know, in their county or in their individual houses and anything that will help them stay connected to their home. so she becomes a critical element of this. this group of of letters. next, we have david walters, her husband, who, as lynn mentioned, joined the fifth indiana calvary. he serves generally in the central area of the country. we have isaac walters, who is one of the first of the brothers to join up. he joins the 20th indiana infantry. he serves along the east coast in the eastern theater of the war, mostly in virginia. we have john wesley walters, the youngest of the brothers. he joins the 46th indiana infantry and he's stationed in, at the time, the western theater, which is actually the mississippi river. and these three brothers are literally sent to the three corners of the war. they're as geographically separate as they can be. and it only makes that network of communication even more important. and then finally, we have john louderback. he's in david's company. he eventually becomes the commanding officer of david's company. but through his letters, we were able to decipher that some of david's early letters are most likely written by him. so most likely dictated by david. but written by john louderback to send messages home and the as we follow these letters through the conflicts, you really start to see the individual personalities come through. you see different penmanship, different grammar, different phrases that are used by the writers. for example, this is one of rachel's letters. she uses a blue ink almost exclusively through the war. there's a few that are not. but. but she's really this is this is one of the ways you could quickly tell that it was one of rachel's letters. and here she draws a picture of a a u.s. flag with the words union forever on it. this is the only one that she illustrated. but again, it it gives it such a personal touch. it it's so important to to see who these people were, what, you know, why were they writing these letters and it's it again, they really become these individuals instead of just, you know, kind of random pieces of paper. so although we have numerous letters in the collection, we've selected a few highlights, too, to present to you tonight to show you again who who this family was, who, who these people were. so the first one we have here is from isaac walters. he is described as being five foot ten inches with dark hair and gray eyes, a very basic description at the time. when he joins up, he's unmarried. he's just shy of his 29th birthday. he's the first of the walters brothers to join the union army. he joins company f of the 20th indiana. as we mentioned, he officially musters in on july 22nd, 1861. and this is the first letter that we have in the collection. the first one that he sent home, dated october 17th, 1861. so between that time, he is in training camp in indiana before his unit is again shipped out to the east coast. and he actually finds himself in the eastern theater of war along some of the coastal islands of north carolina. the union makes an effort early in the war to capture some of those islands, to protect naval assets that were going to be going up and down the coast. and he is involved in some of these very early campaigns. and he he also so in this letter, one of the first things he specifically mentions is news that he had received most likely from rachel in a previous letter, which is not in the collection. and he writes about he mentions news from home and says, quote, i was a little surprised to hear that you had an air so soon, but i hope you will live and do well in order that dave will have somebody to set up corn for him. i fancy his name very much. i believe it is the very name that i would have given him myself. so what he's responding to is the fact that david and rachel had had a son, willard, who you'd seen in that previous picture. and they had obviously just informed isaac of his birth. so, again, you're already starting to see this network forming the the importance of these letters as they're sharing information back and forth. isaac goes on to give some detail about what he's experienced back to the family, describing his experiences in north carolina. he writes, there was nearly half of the regiment taking medicine at the present time, and there is still more taking sick. this is a very sickly whole. so that's not how most people would describe hatteras nowadays. but at the time this was what he experienced. there was great sickness there and his regiment really suffered. why they were there. so this really is a the start of a grueling campaign for the 20th indiana. they end up fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the civil war. and isaac takes part in many of them. so this kind of beginning stage of the war for him, definitely leads to to more serious combat later. almost a year after the letter by isaac. two of his brothers join up. they both fall into, including the oldest brother of the walter's eli walter's, who joins with isaac in the 20 at the indiana. their third brother in line wine. david walter's joins in september of 1862 with the fifth indiana calvary. and it's shortly thereafter that he reports to camp joe reynolds in indianapolis over 100 miles from his home, leaving his wife and his infant son. from the records, we know a little bit about david walters and his time with the fifth indiana calvary. we find a little bit about his past in the military records as well, that he was a farmer, that he was 23 years of three years of age when he volunteered that like his brother isaac, he was also five foot ten, had a dark complexion and dark hair and brown eyes. so those are the only ways that we have to picture. david, other than his letters. we do know that once he reached indianapolis, he was soon put through the paces of drilling. and he writes this to his wife about this. this would prepare him with the fifth indiana calvary and the duties that they would soon have through the middle of the country. and later in the war, preparing for the campaign through georgia at the time that he writes this in october. first, he writes to his wife about some of the excitement of his having with these new events and having joined and becoming a soldier. he writes, quote, we are drilling about as strong as ever we can. and yesterday, there was about 6000 on drill. at one time. and today we had about the same number of soldiers and about 30 to 40000 spectators. we had the biggest time today that we had since i've been here. we had a regular sham battle and fired about 25 rounds apiece. and there was infantry and calvary and two cannon. and the engagement. and there was also a general two of you and the governor. and he goes on to tell his wife the reasons why he had volunteered and the moment he writes, i quote, i'm sorry that your put so much trouble with our things. it can't be help now. and i feel i'm doing my duty to help and maintain the laws of our country and put down the wicked rebellion. it's one of the few times in the series of about 18 letters we have in the collection that he discusses the reason why he has joined up and in a way, the void that he enclosed this kind of echoes what he is saying in the letter with the patriotic symbols that it has on it. at the center of it is a american eagle and the seal of the u.s. around it are 34 pennants with abbreviations for 34 states, including all of the states that had recently seceded during the war. and just a few days time, his wife was writing a letter at home and 20 year old and raising their one year old willie. she was writing about her new experience of moving from royals center in their home that she had shared with david to star city closer to some of her other family members. she discusses going to church and the things about farming. and again, as tom pointed out, using her blue ink, that was very common. this is one of the letters that is available to see in the gallery this evening and shows this side of the page of a two sided page. well worn and likely to have been re read as she wrote to david about what was going on at home. she wrote, i quote, william, he's not very well and he's cutting his teeth, which makes him very fretful, but he's getting better. so he can go down and play a little. and i hope these lines reach you and that you find you will. i received two letters today and one from you lately was last thursday evening and one on monday evening. that was the one that you sent that was directed to royal center and then was re mailed when it was sent on to star city. and like many conventions of the time, she does keep recounting about the way the mail was moving and her kind of duty and being a good letter writer. and she closes with saying, quote, i must close. is there waiting to take the letter to the office. and willie is crying for me to take him. so please write soon as you get this. and that pleading for more letters is a common thread throughout the walters family. several months later, rachel receives a letter from john wesley. he is described as similar to isaac, though he's shorter at five foot six. he's the youngest of the brothers. he's only 20 years old. when he joins the regiment. during the 46 indiana, he mustered into union service in october of 1861 and receives training in indiana before again joining the union army, moving down the mississippi river. he is he and his unit are actively engaged in several of the early battles in that that theater, including a battle for island number ten, which was a fortified island. the confederate army had built up to try to prevent any ships from going by that they fight to to take to open up the way the this specific letter written june 10th, 1863. details some of the nonstop campaigning that john wesley had experienced with his unit. and he uses this letter to inform the family of wound he had received. he writes, we found them. i found them referring to the confederate army at a place called the champions hill. there is where i got wounded. a musket ball struck me on my right side, just above the hip. we lay there three weeks. this letter helped dispel some rumors that had reached indiana that he'd actually been killed in the battle champion hill battle that preceded what would be the siege of vicksburg and the the this ability to send that home certainly must have relieved those. and to dispel such a rumor, he also explains in this letter that after being kind of stuck at the on the battlefield for so long, he is eventually moved to a a larger hospital in memphis to recover. he also relays to rachel how glad he was to have received a letter from her and received news from back home. he writes. you also spoke about david. i'm glad you told me where he is. i wrote him a long letter if he gets it. i want you to let me know what he thought of it. so again, this this is another example of just how important this this network is to the brothers. not only are they receiving news from home, but one of the quickest way for them to receive news from the other brothers is to go receive it from from rachel. so they're they're literally using her as kind of the the middle two to get that information back. and forth. he his unit goes on to participate in the siege of vicksburg, as i mentioned. he, however, does not. it takes him some time to recover from the wounds he received at champions hill. he's placed in some roles guarding railroads and whatnot behind the union lines as he recovers from that. but rachel continues to write to isaac and john wesley throughout their service. again, acting as this this nexus. and she, of course, continues to write to david while he's in the field. so this letter that we selected from rachel to david is about a year after that one from john wesley. it's mid-may 1864, and her life is rather busy on the home front. she's again sharing all the news about the family, the health of the neighbors. and is talking about the union cause. but much of it focuses on herself. and there's manyhings that she's doing. so i'll read you a long passage that she has and let her words speak for themselves. quote, i'm still trying to teach school. and the prospect begins to look little fairer. my school average frombout 20 to 4 to about 28. this week. it looks a little more encouraging. and this saturday, i've been covering the corn for pap and about for noon. and i expect to help this afternoon asell. he's got about 18 acres plted and i don't know how much he's going to plant really as well. and he's well pleed to see me come home. we always runs to me and he says that he's mama'boy and pies y. and he says the pause down in dixie fighting rebels. and so i asked him what he thought aboupie and what would perfection when he came home. and he said thought the piwood fetch him some little ots. but i'm ready now to go out to the field. and so i must finish this a little while later. and she does too. you. continues the letter the next day on may 15th, this time telling david about visiting his sister martha. she tells them about a letter that she received from his sister emeline and we do have correspondence from both of those sisters in the collection as well. but it's a closing that she uses at the end of this may 15th letter in which she writes again about sort of the receiving the letters and the timeline. and she writes, quote, i will close hoping to hear from you as soon as possible and try to write oftener as i have been trying to do. i'll send you a few stamps in this letter. i will send you more at the time, but i'm afraid you might not get them. and in some ways, some of the web, as we were looking at the letters, there were things that were prescient in many of these at the time that she is writing. and may 14, through 15. david is engaged at the battle of masaka in northern georgia. it's a pretty evenly matched battle between the union and the confederate forces. it actually is an inconclusive battle, but his regiment and his company suffer a number of casualty issues, including the capture of david, which we believe happened on may 14th. it's not until later in may. does rachel receive word about david's capture? and this is all through the auspices of his commanding officer, john louderback, who has taken it upon himself to write a letter before he himself is captured at the next battle that the fifth indiana calvary is engaged in and sent on to the anderson prison, andersonville prison. this letter from ice rachel is written only a few months later and he has obviously learned the information about david's capture from rachel. he responds in this letter to offer his condolences that that david had been captured. as we follow this family through the war, through these letters, this one particularly became quite heartbreaking. isaac's tone shifts dramatically from some of his ear msives in the war to. to this point. and you can really start to see how not only t campaigns that he's engaged in are wearing on him, but the news from what's happening to his brothers, what's happening to his family is also starting to weigh on him more and more. he he the condolences he offers are as such. quote, i feel very sorry for you that you can't hear from david. you must be on great suspense and you must feel very lonely but you must look upon the bright side of the picture and hope forhe best. i think he will turn up all right some time. if the gray backs don't starve to death and i hope th will fail in this if they undertake it. i think david has a pretty good constitutionnd will get through. all right. if he is only alive. so again, this just this small, you know, portion of the letter just showcases, again, the suffering that, you know, isaac is feeling for his brother and being so far from home, being unable to know how his brother's doing and that his one connection is rachel. the the war weariness that that isaac is suffering comes through also. and later in this letter, he writes, i think the war will close sometime or never if it never closes, i guess there is no danger of us poor soldiers getting out of a job. i will close for the present, hoping soon to hear from you. and this. the sullen attitude most likely comes from the fact that his unit had not been engaged almost continuously in the siege of petersburg city in richmond, which the union army was attempting to capture. and then capturing richmond, virginia, the capital, the confederacy. so he even writes that he's located in the camp during the siege at that time. so the war is again weighing heavily on isaac as as all the family, as it continues, as the the suffering continues for the family. this letter written about a year later by john lauterbach to rachel walters, is represents the type of letter that no one went to receive during the war, but so many did. he is writing to rachel to inform her of the death of her husband during the civil war. there was no formal way for families to be informed of such matters. oftentimes times, casualties from units would be published in local newspapers, or it was up to a commanding officer to write home to provide such details. lauterbach starts the letter b not weary or troubled. trust in the lord, for he is able to comfort. he continues, i think i am safe in saying that your husband, d.w walters, died in rebel prison about the 10th of february. i saw him about the fifth. he was done unable to help himself. i waited on him and gave him as much comfort as i could until i was taken down myself. he often spoke of you and his little boy, which he spoke of with a great deal of respect and seemed to be waiting with a great deal of anxiety for the time to come. when the prison doors would be thrown open and he could return to his loved ones at home. but alas, the small amount of meal that he was allowed was not sufficient for him. i did not see him die myself, but i have been told by competent persons that he died about the time that i have stated. captain lauterbach goes on to provide some basic details, adds rachel, as to how she can start the process to apply for a pension. as a widow, she would be entitled to one, and although she was entitled to one. that process would become a years long time consuming pursuit for her. in part because of duties like captain lauterbach took upon himself that it wasn't a formal situation where there were documentation for it, as he said in a letter, and got her back to the letter. he says he is not completing david's mustering out papers. he's not completing the paperwork for david. and so it's left to rachel to put that together, which this one letter front and back shows us that some of that process went on for four years. the letter on the front side, on the far goes to town over there is rachel writing in response to a letter that she had sent previously to the missing soldiers office in washington, d.c. and she's correcting some information that she needs to to have publish the missing soldiers officer was established in 1865 by clara barton soon after, she finishes her medical assistance work with the union army and she sees that this kind of lack of information in a formalized system of telling families about the soldier's status of missing in action, killed in action, and whether they're returning from p.o.w. camps spurs her to start a office that deals with correspondence with veterans and for their families. they devise a way to publicize this by soliciting names from the family to be put into the local newspapers and then soliciting, then the response from veterans to write to the missing soldiers office with any information they may have with their about their comrades. so rachel uses this in a way that is a typical than many of the americans that were writing to the missing soldiers office because unlike some of americans who were looking for their husbands like rachel, were looking for fathers and uncles, she was looking for that information. she already knew. she already knew the outcome for for david what she needed was to have a witness who would be able to put this on paper, that she could secure the money that would support herself and the toddler son willing. so in writing, she wrote to the missing soldiers office to make sure that david's name spelled correctly. they had written to her to say that david walters would be included on one of these roles that would go to the local newspapers. and she corrected them that it had to be david and they flipped the paper over at the office and returned it to her with assurances that, yes, david, w walter's will be listed as a member of the fifth indiana cavalry and it's signed for clara barton in her name by one of the office workers, the missing soldiers office operated for the three years and during that time they connected over 22,000 americans with information about miing ldiers. this took about 100,000 letters that were circulated by the missing soldiers office of inquiries that they were sending out. and about personal letters like the one that they we sending to rachel, including the one here on their letter statied that mentions that they are the office of correspondence. and it on this letter they are taking the testimony of one of the veterans by the name ofohn brown, who is also from indiana. and sharing that with rachel, that john brown has informed them that that he saw david die at four in south carolina. this is exactly the kind of information that rachel needed to secure a pension. but upon further work with the pension documents that are in the collection and those that are at the national archives, we know that it wasn't john brown's witness testimony or one of the other letters that we have in the collection, the four through the missing soldiers office, that finally, rachel, the pension there was a third veteran who came forward and gave witness testimony. and so after two years, almost three years of trying, she did secure the pension in september of 1865. sorry, 68. and we know that. only three months later she died, leaving their young son, willy in the care of her parents. samuel ward jr, and her mother sarah. and it's through the pension filing that sarah that rachel did that they were able to support willy with an $8 a month miner's pension. it's those kind of documents that help us put together the story of this family and their experiences through the civil war. and as as rachel is, many parts of this communication network between these brothers, this sisters and other members of their community, what is puzzling in a way, is how did we end up with the letters and how did the walter's family end up with rachel's letters returning from david? and, of course took the efforts of david, certainly to save his letters from rachel. that meant he carried those with him through all the states that he traveled. there's no sign on any of the envelopes that we have in the collection at any point that he say enclosed extra letters of hers and return them back to her. we do have one hint in one of the letters from john lauterbach back now, one where he does inform her of david's death that david's effects are at his own house and she is welcome to come to the lauterbach house and pick up those effects, including a ten case, which i think would have very well preserved these kind of paper records of this family and the words that they exchanged each other, like the mystery of how the letters returned. we, we, we came upon some other mysteries with this this story, with developing this. and one of them was, in fact, the the location of david's death, although we had these affidavits and other testimonies of his death of a prisoner of war camp, there is a headstone located in marietta national cemetery in marietta, georgia, in section a site for 73 that reads david walters company i fifth indiana calvary. and we can assure you there were no other david walters in company i of the fifth indiana calvary. and the site lists the date of death as june 5th, 1864, about three weeks after the date david is reported as captured. so in a time before dog tags dna, there was no way to really identify the dead after a battle other than those who knew them, hopefully being around to do so so. miss ids did happen and it is fully possible that there is somebody else in that grave, but it is still made out to david. so that was something we, you know, we had to to research and puzzle over. we are pretty certain that with the the sheer amount of testimonies that that rachel herself gathered, that, you know, his death did occur in a prisoner of war camp. but it was something to consider that again, there is a grave in georgia. the other item that we couldn't ever locate was, a photograph of any of of the writers of these letters, even though in multiple letters we have them asking for photographs, describing going and getting photographs taken, writing about sending photographs to each other, and then complementing each other photographs. so throughout the letters, we have all of these these comments about photographs of each other. and there are none that we could find. there were the they were none that were included with the donation. there were the family currently did have any they were able to provide us that earlier photo of their son later in life, but nothing from the time period. and when we asked experts in civil war photography, especially at the center for civil war photography, in other places, they mentioned that many photographs not labeled. these were often sent to family members. so why would you label them? but as a result, as soon as those family members passed that that that identity goes with them. so it's not uncommon to have unidentified photographs from the era. and the one that you're looking at right now was recently digitized by library of congress. this is in their collection, and it's mp labeled as an unidentified soldier of the fiftinana calvary. so this is david's unit. so could that be possibly. but we we just don't know. and although the members of the walter's family are faceless to us now, they're voice still lives on, their story still lives on through the letters they saved and through the letters they wrote, they they documented what it was like to live through this terrible time in. american history and their story represents what many families went through during this time. and it was such a privilege for us to be able to really down into this story and to share it with you all. thank you. thank you. so hoping to take a q&a and i know we have a microphone in the audience because we're also on zoom online. so the microphone will be going around the audience and i know there's also potentially online questions as well. and we're hoping as we're sharing this collection through the book, that many others will come to this collection and bring their own questions about it as tom and i have any questions here. thank you. i have a two part question. first off, can you speak to. digitizing, transcribing this set of letters versus some of the other collections that you've worked through in the past? was this particularly challenging or was this pretty standard? was there any particular challenges with this collection versus others? i might add that with this collection, because of the various letter writers, there is a a sliding scale of difficulty, as we showed you with some of rachel's letters, she has very nice script. her her grammar tends to be kind of higher than most. so transcribing her letters were were on the easier part of that scale. david, on the other hand, from his letters, you can tell that he he was not as proficient in in his writing or his grammar. those proved to be a little more difficult to to pass out. but it did improve through the war. you could tell that as he kind of had practice, that he got better with with with writing home. as we mentioned earlier, several of his letters. we we think we're written by a different hand either john lauterbach or another soldier in his unit. but he does he does write some one of the other aspects of this is almost all of them are written in ink, which did make it easier. pencil has a tendency to smear and just over the years it it can be harder to read but ink helps stay as it is darker and it just allows you to to read a little easier. and in doing the transcriptions we tried to stay as true verbatim to what we found in the letters. so that means a lot of things are not spelled to a standard modern english and we actually kind of would advise people to read them almost aloud as many times. they would have probably been read aloud to share with with other family members and to share this kind of news. this is certainly a families that had gone to school, but for a different amounts of time. we looked at the census records and saw it different times that rachel ward and her siblings had gone to school for various amounts of time, as well as the many siblings in the walter's family. so it does explain a sort of variations in their education level and. so much more of their letters is almost in like an oral tradition about how their their to each other through through these documents. but they're also combining them with the etiquette of letter writing and some of those phrases. so those we tried to preserve. so my second question is so you mention you have about 180 letters in the collection. can you hazard a guess? and how much is we do know for a fact that there are missing letters because they will several of them are referenced. rachel will say in your letter of this date, which we don't have, i would say we have definitive some around maybe 15, 20 that are specifically referenced that we don't have we also don't have any of the letters that rachel sent to isaac or john wesley or the only letters of rachel's we have are the ones that she sent to david. so that kind of her missives to them are missing. so a lot of what she told them, we were we could learn through some of their letters back, you know, in your letter of this date, you mentioned this. so we could get little puzzle pieces of what she had written to them, but not her full letters. and we have about 15 envelopes without the contents. so we know that we have the wrappers, but we don't have what they had written. it is, but it helped us in ways that we use them to figure out where they were at certain times and so it did inform us about how they were traveling, where the brothers were at were at certain times the number of letters that rachel was receiving, as well. so they did fill in some of those gaps, even though we did not have the contents. behind. and it sounds like some of the important of these letters are the envelopes that they came in, the stamps that were on them. was it maybe you mentioned this, but is it common? and why do you do you have some insight as to why they did keep the envelopes? why not just the letters, especially thinking about trying to travel with all of these letters? it's just extra paper that you kind of have to bring with you. so what are your thoughts on that? i think it's partly it's maybe a little bit of let's have a wrapper on the outside to protect these letters as you're carrying them. it does also does become part of the story. and yes, some families choose to just save the contents of the letters and some museums and archives to save the the letters, not the envelopes. and in this case, we have it certainly was when the family was donating it. the first items that they donated, the smithsonian. were seven of the envelopes. and then the letters came a year later, when they were ready to to donate, there was and i think it was partly just for them and for what it does for us. it tells part of that story of who has written on that address, how that moved, and have some of those dates that some of these letters don't include all the dates and places that they were and maybe some of that also helped. rachel, you know, where people were and why she saved some of those. we have a couple coming in online. so the first that i have here is thank you for the wonderful and you mentioned that the letters themselves represent the narrative of the family's wartime experiences as editors. how much work did you have to do to fill in the gaps between the letters, or are there no significant gaps in the collection and it's fairly robust. between 1861 through 1865. from the beginning of the war, and then through the aftermath. what tom and i really tried to do was not intervene too much. we tried to, in the way that we approached the transcriptions, we tried to leave it as verbatim as possible. we used notes to to help identify some places and and people's names that are maybe a little bit harder to read some period terms, but it's the introductory essays that we give that are about each of the that i think fill in the this sort of put it in the context of what's happening in the nation, what's happening in the v.a., what's happening in the community in which rachel lived and the walter's brothers had lived. so i think we filled not many of the gaps. it was pretty small. we most of the wartime experiences, lynn said, was was well-represented in the letters we we did occasionally have to look at records of the units where they may have been to confirm certain things, especially when, for example, when isaac wrote in the camp, the 20th indiana, that that's not really a good. so being able to to kind of say, okay here but again that information was there. we knew they were in the camp for the 23rd year and we just had a pass it out a little bit. most of the information we added would be things kind of more the background things from census records, from genealogical records, things like that, which was not necessarily in the letter. so that was really where we added most. but again, they they did provide a wealth of information that in the letters themselves that that didn't require us to go too deep into that area. and at least one occasion we did correct something to do. we found that rachel had misstated one of hers. and in june of 1864 and as many of us have this sort of moment, she wrote 1863, but none of the events that she's recording matched up with. she talks about someone's death and someone's marriage, which we knew from some of the other letters had actually happened in 1864. so we made a note of that. a couple more here to so has clara barton's missing soldiers office in washington dc been turned into a museum? it is, yes. it is a museum on seventh street. it's part of a complex with the national civil war medicine museum and is is open. and then another common. thank you for the very interesting talk and bringing these letter writers to life. were there any surprises in the letters other than learning about the death or intimate details that would not be expected for that time period. surprises i was when when going through these letters the first time, especially kind of working on the transcripts and whatnot, the bluntness of isaac in his letter that we talked about to to rachel about, you know, david's experience, that kind of caught me off guard. i was i was a little surprised that at how kind of forward he was with that information, especially in a kind of moment where he's trying to be consoling. so i don't know if that was a surprise, but that did that did hit pretty hard, as did captain lauterbach's letter. you know, as you're following along, you're you know, you're almost rooting. and then, you know, to get to that letter, it was it was very, you know, a punch in the gut, if you would, to to suddenly read that again. you you kind of get invested in this family that you're you're following their story. you're seeing, you know, what they're doing, what they're experiencing. rachel often writes about how much she misses david, and he writes about how much he would like to go home, things like that. so to kind of get to that point was, again, kind of a surprise, if you would. i can't think of any surprising details that were shared. yeah, i think this surprises almost in reading them. when you read them for the first time, it's almost put your put you in the experience of being the recipient and and this is all news. so if it's the first time through of reading them, it's as the story unfolds as it had to the recipient. but as many times as we've read it, no surprises are there. but some of the poignant moments certainly do remain with you. and then do any of the letters comment on the literacy or ability ability to write home of other soldiers in the various units or of overcoming those challenges? yes, there's some of those kind of conventions of many letter writers often write about excuse me, for my penmanship very much. that was rachel would do that far more than i would say the brother is or david would do, and she's very conscious of it. once in a while they'll write about the sort of state of the material that you're using. and so sorry about the the ink is not very strong at this time. apologized when they didn't have a stamp. we have a letter from john wesley where he didn't expect to have had a stamp to pay for it. and so rachel would have had to pay for it upon delivery. but we do have that envelope and know that he must have found a stamp at some point. and there are moments where they talk about, of course, the sending and receiving of letters, but there's also moments where we do see them, particularly between david and rachel, start to use similar expressions in similar ways that they're doing. they're there post scripts and talking to each other. so there is certainly a consciousness in how they're writing to each other about letters. and as we mentioned, some of the letters from david are clearly in a different handwriting. so we don't know if he was unable to or if he was self-conscious his writing. but he it is obvious that at some point someone else is writing letters, that he's dictating. but then we do also have letters in his hand. so we don't know if he just didn't have someone who could write for him or if he had finally been taking a chance. but when he kind of starts copying some of rachel's styles, that is in his hand. so it is interesting to see him kind of learning from her letter writing technique in his own letters, and then we have one more. can you talk about the mail delivery system during that time? yeah, for the union forces and americans on the union side, it was pretty much business as usual, except for the mail had stopped being exchanged with the confederate states. so for getting mail to p.o.w. is to those who were trying to cross the line. many americans were using the express companies and there was could go through what were called excuse me, flag of truce points where there would be exchanges of goods, including the mail for the walters and their letters pretty were sort of on that timely convention that they were used to of the mail moving fairly rapidly with the strong railway system in the north and through up to the the front that was done through the post office department, working through what they called special agents who were the intermediaries between the post office department and the military in many ways, the military had assigned most of the mail duties to privates and mail who were taking the mail to and from the headquarters. and and that mail moved fairly rapidly. and at sometimes some surprising moments that would be delivered during combat. but we do know that that there times where the walter's do and other americans and the civil war letters do note about the changes in their their mail system. but for the most part, they're they're fairly open in how they talk about the news of the day. they're not censored letters in any way. the soldier's letters are not censored. so anything they off is what they've self-censored. we have one more comment and it is that david and rachel are my great great great grandparents and this has been a wonderful discussion to join. so thank you, lynn and tom. that's wonderful. thank you. thank you. well, thank you for coming to our panel this morning entitled tale of three presidential homes the good, the bad and the ugly. our panel today will discuss identity politics and anti-racist ideology have infected the presidential homes in virginia and also what this movement aims to do to our

Transcripts For CSPAN2 The Civil War Letters Between Home And The Front 20221009

here at the national postal museum, and they are really at the heart of this book. and one of the wonderful things about the way that they have organized this book is that the letters really pull you in to a period 160 years ago and help you understand the centrality of the written word, particularly at a time when families are frequently separated for the first time and they have provided the information that you need to not only understand the family networks, but the community networks and the postal network and what's happening geopolitically in the united states during the civil war. so really looking forward to this talk. lynn heidelberg is a curator here at the smithsonian national postal museum. she's specializes in the history of u.s. postal service and has published essays and created several exhibits, specifically in this case on military mail, including mail call, which you can visit out in the gallery floor as well as my fellow soldiers letters from world war one, for which she received the smithson sheehan secretary's research prize in 2018. thomas halon curates the lighter than air collections, including balloons, lamps and airships at the smithsonian national air and space museum. his research focuses on ballooning in the civil war, as well as the use of airships and blimps in america. he is the coauthor of milestones of flight the epic of aviation with the national air and space museum. so in december 1863, rachel ward walters sat down to write a letter from her home in northwestern indiana, and she opened it in a phrase to her husband, who was miles away serving in the fifth indiana calvary. and she wrote, quote, kind and affectionate companion once more. i attempt to address you by the silent language of the pen. four months later, her sister, phoebe ward duncan, used very similar words when she wrote to david as well in keeping up these family connections. and she wrote in april 1864, my dear brother, after a shameful silence, which i beg to pardon you, i once again address you by the silent language of the pen. and although rachel and phoebe say that their language is silence, we're hoping that that through their letters in the collection, that we will talk about tonight, that their words come alive and their expressions that they share with their family, their thoughts and their perspective, in particular during a moment of national strife, and certainly for this family and the individuals within it and the phrases that rachel and phoebe and others used about the silent language of the pen are really embody what people were trying to do with the mail. and to keep up that communication. those kind of phrases were the conventions of the time. they were used to a certain etiquette of letter writing, and it was very widespread. so it was common to to run into such phrases as these. they were commonly taught when at school for reading and writing purposes. and it was a time where more and more people were writing letters. in the mid 19th century, more americans were becoming accustomed to using the mail. it had become far more affordable, all with the reforms of the post office in the mid 19th century, making the postage more affordable and using innovations like the postage stamp which make it far more easy to access. and in that time, the americans had become used to a reliable mail service, that they had become used to a certain timeliness of those letters and they talked to each other through that language of those letters about the timeliness and always making note of when they had received a letter and apologizing if they were delayed. and of course, those kind of delays became far more emotionally compounded when times of war, like the walter's, a family experienced. and so turning to those kind of stop phrases that rachel and phoebe used was a way to sort of get yourself writing and being able to to use some of those customs that everybody was was used to at a time where some of the mail was not flowing as easily as it had before. but the post office department and the military made every effort to keep the personal letters flowing, particularly through the lines of the homefront. and and there was on the front keeping both informed of the reasons why they were fighting and and keeping them in touch with each other. it's these kind of letters that we're sharing through this collection tonight that's here at the national postal museum. and it came to us in to installments from the walter's family of of indiana. they donated it to the smithsonian in the first few items that came to the smithsonian in 1964, donated by arthur walters, the grandson of david and rachel walter's, and his daughter, june walters. leonard donated the bulk of the collection of the letters in 1991. the picture here is of willard and amelia. walter's this willard being the son of david and rachel walters. so it's through their family line that we have these letters to share with you and share with american public in this donation. it becomes clear why the walter's family valued these letters. there's 180 letters and papers, mostly of the use of envelopes that show the way that the mail travel, the cost of that mail. when the address had to change, to find somebody who had relocated and the postmarks of the work that the post office was doing to to process those mail. we have about 100 of those envelopes and about 80 or so letters and a few items of ephemera that the family enclosed while trying to communicate with each other, including the item in the middle here, which is a special order that was issued in 1863, and that david had chosen to enclose in this envelope with his letter that's pictured. and this was at a time while david was serving in kentucky, a border state, and working with the fifth indiana calvary to secure a peace in the area. in particular, this special order declared martial law in the counties so that the state election could go along peacefully. so this is one of the kind of items that he chose to share with his wife, to let her know the kind of experiences that he was having. and then these passed through the family and into the collection. so we're fortunate to have not only their letters and their words, but also these kind of mementos that they shared, even some small souvenirs, but also some of the pension documents that the family worked with to to work in the aftermath of the war. the entire collection actually spans from the beginning of the war, and it just pre-war of 1859, with a few letters with rachel beginning the relationship with david just before they were married. and it closes with her letters. in 1868. through this wonderful collection. we were able to really start to pull out the details, not only about the experience during the war, but but also the experience that each of these different family members, each of these different writers had. and we started by completing an accurate transcription of the letters. and then we placed them in chronological order. and once we did that, they were no longer just 180 pieces of individual pieces of mail and envelopes. but there was a story. there was a narrative that that evolved from that. we were really able to see conversations start to develop the these family members would write a letter and someone would respond to questions that were were sent in that. and it really, again, gave them a life that they they you didn't realize before that time. you really start to see connections form this network that's created in this family of letter writers so that they could keep up with what was going on and understand what experience each of them is having. the although there are several writers in the collection that only have a few mentions like phoebe, as lynn mentioned, the collection really consists of these five main writers. they're the ones that really are the the heart and soul of the collection. first, we have rachel jane ward as lynn mentioned, she marries david walters on december 16th, 1860, becoming rachel walters. she becomes this nexus of this communication hub. she is one of the most literate of all the writers and in fact, works as a schoolteacher a year later. and she really is the one that the brothers and brother, her brothers in law and her husband are writing to her. and then she's disseminating that information back to the other brothers and also including messages from what's going on at home, you know, in their county or in their individual houses and anything that will help them stay connected to their home. so she becomes a critical element of this. this group of of letters. next, we have david walters, her husband, who, as lynn mentioned, joined the fifth indiana calvary. he serves generally in the central area of the country. we have isaac walters, who is one of the first of the brothers to join up. he joins the 20th indiana infantry. he serves along the east coast in the eastern theater of the war, mostly in virginia. we have john wesley walters, the youngest of the brothers. he joins the 46th indiana infantry and he's stationed in, at the time, the western theater, which is actually the mississippi river. and these three brothers are literally sent to the three corners of the war. they're as geographically separate as they can be. and it only makes that network of communication even more important. and then finally, we have john louderback. he's in david's company. he eventually becomes the commanding officer of david's company. but through his letters, we were able to decipher that some of david's early letters are most likely written by him. so most likely dictated by david. but written by john louderback to send messages home and the as we follow these letters through the conflicts, you really start to see the individual personalities come through. you see different penmanship, different grammar, different phrases that are used by the writers. for example, this is one of rachel's letters. she uses a blue ink almost exclusively through the war. there's a few that are not. but. but she's really this is this is one of the ways you could quickly tell that it was one of rachel's letters. and here she draws a picture of a a u.s. flag with the words union forever on it. this is the only one that she illustrated. but again, it it gives it such a personal touch. it it's so important to to see who these people were, what, you know, why were they writing these letters and it's it again, they really become these individuals instead of just, you know, kind of random pieces of paper. so although we have numerous letters in the collection, we've selected a few highlights, too, to present to you tonight to show you again who who this family was, who, who these people were. so the first one we have here is from isaac walters. he is described as being five foot ten inches with dark hair and gray eyes, a very basic description at the time. when he joins up, he's unmarried. he's just shy of his 29th birthday. he's the first of the walters brothers to join the union army. he joins company f of the 20th indiana. as we mentioned, he officially musters in on july 22nd, 1861. and this is the first letter that we have in the collection. the first one that he sent home, dated october 17th, 1861. so between that time, he is in training camp in indiana before his unit is again shipped out to the east coast. and he actually finds himself in the eastern theater of war along some of the coastal islands of north carolina. the union makes an effort early in the war to capture some of those islands, to protect naval assets that were going to be going up and down the coast. and he is involved in some of these very early campaigns. and he he also so in this letter, one of the first things he specifically mentions is news that he had received most likely from rachel in a previous letter, which is not in the collection. and he writes about he mentions news from home and says, quote, i was a little surprised to hear that you had an air so soon, but i hope you will live and do well in order that dave will have somebody to set up corn for him. i fancy his name very much. i believe it is the very name that i would have given him myself. so what he's responding to is the fact that david and rachel had had a son, willard, who you'd seen in that previous picture. and they had obviously just informed isaac of his birth. so, again, you're already starting to see this network forming the the importance of these letters as they're sharing information back and forth. isaac goes on to give some detail about what he's experienced back to the family, describing his experiences in north carolina. he writes, there was nearly half of the regiment taking medicine at the present time, and there is still more taking sick. this is a very sickly whole. so that's not how most people would describe hatteras nowadays. but at the time this was what he experienced. there was great sickness there and his regiment really suffered. why they were there. so this really is a the start of a grueling campaign for the 20th indiana. they end up fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the civil war. and isaac takes part in many of them. so this kind of beginning stage of the war for him, definitely leads to to more serious combat later. almost a year after the letter by isaac. two of his brothers join up. they both fall into, including the oldest brother of the walter's eli walter's, who joins with isaac in the 20 at the indiana. their third brother in line wine. david walter's joins in september of 1862 with the fifth indiana calvary. and it's shortly thereafter that he reports to camp joe reynolds in indianapolis over 100 miles from his home, leaving his wife and his infant son. from the records, we know a little bit about david walters and his time with the fifth indiana calvary. we find a little bit about his past in the military records as well, that he was a farmer, that he was 23 years of three years of age when he volunteered that like his brother isaac, he was also five foot ten, had a dark complexion and dark hair and brown eyes. so those are the only ways that we have to picture. david, other than his letters. we do know that once he reached indianapolis, he was soon put through the paces of drilling. and he writes this to his wife about this. this would prepare him with the fifth indiana calvary and the duties that they would soon have through the middle of the country. and later in the war, preparing for the campaign through georgia at the time that he writes this in october. first, he writes to his wife about some of the excitement of his having with these new events and having joined and becoming a soldier. he writes, quote, we are drilling about as strong as ever we can. and yesterday, there was about 6000 on drill. at one time. and today we had about the same number of soldiers and about 30 to 40000 spectators. we had the biggest time today that we had since i've been here. we had a regular sham battle and fired about 25 rounds apiece. and there was infantry and calvary and two cannon. and the engagement. and there was also a general two of you and the governor. and he goes on to tell his wife the reasons why he had volunteered and the moment he writes, i quote, i'm sorry that your put so much trouble with our things. it can't be help now. and i feel i'm doing my duty to help and maintain the laws of our country and put down the wicked rebellion. it's one of the few times in the series of about 18 letters we have in the collection that he discusses the reason why he has joined up and in a way, the void that he enclosed this kind of echoes what he is saying in the letter with the patriotic symbols that it has on it. at the center of it is a american eagle and the seal of the u.s. around it are 34 pennants with abbreviations for 34 states, including all of the states that had recently seceded during the war. and just a few days time, his wife was writing a letter at home and 20 year old and raising their one year old willie. she was writing about her new experience of moving from royals center in their home that she had shared with david to star city closer to some of her other family members. she discusses going to church and the things about farming. and again, as tom pointed out, using her blue ink, that was very common. this is one of the letters that is available to see in the gallery this evening and shows this side of the page of a two sided page. well worn and likely to have been re read as she wrote to david about what was going on at home. she wrote, i quote, william, he's not very well and he's cutting his teeth, which makes him very fretful, but he's getting better. so he can go down and play a little. and i hope these lines reach you and that you find you will. i received two letters today and one from you lately was last thursday evening and one on monday evening. that was the one that you sent that was directed to royal center and then was re mailed when it was sent on to star city. and like many conventions of the time, she does keep recounting about the way the mail was moving and her kind of duty and being a good letter writer. and she closes with saying, quote, i must close. is there waiting to take the letter to the office. and willie is crying for me to take him. so please write soon as you get this. and that pleading for more letters is a common thread throughout the walters family. several months later, rachel receives a letter from john wesley. he is described as similar to isaac, though he's shorter at five foot six. he's the youngest of the brothers. he's only 20 years old. when he joins the regiment. during the 46 indiana, he mustered into union service in october of 1861 and receives training in indiana before again joining the union army, moving down the mississippi river. he is he and his unit are actively engaged in several of the early battles in that that theater, including a battle for island number ten, which was a fortified island. the confederate army had built up to try to prevent any ships from going by that they fight to to take to open up the way the this specific letter written june 10th, 1863. details some of the nonstop campaigning that john wesley had experienced with his unit. and he uses this letter to inform the family of wound he had received. he writes, we found them. i found them referring to the confederate army at a place called the champions hill. there is where i got wounded. a musket ball struck me on my right side, just above the hip. we lay there three weeks. this letter helped dispel some rumors that had reached indiana that he'd actually been killed in the battle champion hill battle that preceded what would be the siege of vicksburg and the the this ability to send that home certainly must have relieved those. and to dispel such a rumor, he also explains in this letter that after being kind of stuck at the on the battlefield for so long, he is eventually moved to a a larger hospital in memphis to recover. he also relays to rachel how glad he was to have received a letter from her and received news from back home. he writes. you also spoke about david. i'm glad you told me where he is. i wrote him a long letter if he gets it. i want you to let me know what he thought of it. so again, this this is another example of just how important this this network is to the brothers. not only are they receiving news from home, but one of the quickest way for them to receive news from the other brothers is to go receive it from from rachel. so they're they're literally using her as kind of the the middle two to get that information back. and forth. he his unit goes on to participate in the siege of vicksburg, as i mentioned. he, however, does not. it takes him some time to recover from the wounds he received at champions hill. he's placed in some roles guarding railroads and whatnot behind the union lines as he recovers from that. but rachel continues to write to isaac and john wesley throughout their service. again, acting as this this nexus. and she, of course, continues to write to david while he's in the field. so this letter that we selected from rachel to david is about a year after that one from john wesley. it's mid-may 1864, and her life is rather busy on the home front. she's again sharing all the news about the family, the health of the neighbors. and is talking about the union cause. but much of it focuses on herself. and there's many things that she's doing. so i'll read you a long passage that she has and let her words speak for themselves. quote, i'm still trying to teach school. and the prospect begins to look a little fairer. my school average from about 20 to 4 to about 28. this week. it looks a little more encouraging. and this saturday, i've been covering the corn for pap and about for noon. and i expect to help this afternoon as well. he's got about 18 acres planted and i don't know how much he's going to plant really as well. and he's well pleased to see me come home. we always runs to me and he says that he's mama's boy and pies boy. and he says the pause down in dixie fighting rebels. and so i asked him what he thought about pie and what would perfection when he came home. and he said he thought the pinewood fetch him some little boots. but i'm ready now to go out to the field. and so i must finish this a little while later. and she does too. you. continues the letter the next day on may 15th, this time telling david about visiting his sister martha. she tells them about a letter that she received from his sister emeline and we do have correspondence from both of those sisters in the collection as well. but it's a closing that she uses at the end of this may 15th letter in which she writes again about sort of the receiving the letters and the timeline. and she writes, quote, i will close hoping to hear from you as soon as possible and try to write oftener as i have been trying to do. i'll send you a few stamps in this letter. i will send you more at the time, but i'm afraid you might not get them. and in some ways, some of the web, as we were looking at the letters, there were things that were prescient in many of these at the time that she is writing. and may 14, through 15. david is engaged at the battle of masaka in northern georgia. it's a pretty evenly matched battle between the union and the confederate forces. it actually is an inconclusive battle, but his regiment and his company suffer a number of casualty issues, including the capture of david, which we believe happened on may 14th. it's not until later in may. does rachel receive word about david's capture? and this is all through the auspices of his commanding officer, john louderback, who has taken it upon himself to write a letter before he himself is captured at the next battle that the fifth indiana calvary is engaged in and sent on to the anderson prison, andersonville prison. this letter from ice rachel is written only a few months later and he has obviously learned the information about david's capture from rachel. he responds in this letter to offer his condolences that that david had been captured. as we follow this family through the war, through these letters, this one particularly became quite heartbreaking. isaac's tone shifts dramatically from some of his early missives in the war to. to this point. and you can really start to see how not only the campaigns that he's engaged in are wearing on him, but the news from what's happening to his brothers, what's happening to his family is also starting to weigh on him more and more. he he the condolences he offers are as such. quote, i feel very sorry for you that you can't hear from david. you must be on great suspense and you must feel very lonely. but you must look upon the bright side of the picture and hope for the best. i think he will turn up all right some time. if the gray backs don't starve to death and i hope they will fail in this if they undertake it. i think david has a pretty good constitution and will get through. all right. if he is only alive. so again, this just this small, you know, portion of the letter just showcases, again, the suffering that, you know, isaac is feeling for his brother and being so far from home, being unable to know how his brother's doing and that his one connection is rachel. the the war weariness that that isaac is suffering comes through also. and later in this letter, he writes, i think the war will close sometime or never if it never closes, i guess there is no danger of us poor soldiers getting out of a job. i will close for the present, hoping soon to hear from you. and this. the sullen attitude most likely comes from the fact that his unit had not been engaged almost continuously in the siege of petersburg city in richmond, which the union army was attempting to capture. and then capturing richmond, virginia, the capital, the confederacy. so he even writes that he's located in the camp during the siege at that time. so the war is again weighing heavily on isaac as as all the family, as it continues, as the the suffering continues for the family. this letter written about a year later by john lauterbach to rachel walters, is represents the type of letter that no one went to receive during the war, but so many did. he is writing to rachel to inform her of the death of her husband during the civil war. there was no formal way for families to be informed of such matters. oftentimes times, casualties from units would be published in local newspapers, or it was up to a commanding officer to write home to provide such details. lauterbach starts the letter b not weary or troubled. trust in the lord, for he is able to comfort. he continues, i think i am safe in saying that your husband, d.w walters, died in rebel prison about the 10th of february. i saw him about the fifth. he was done unable to help himself. i waited on him and gave him as much comfort as i could until i was taken down myself. he often spoke of you and his little boy, which he spoke of with a great deal of respect and seemed to be waiting with a great deal of anxiety for the time to come. when the prison doors would be thrown open and he could return to his loved ones at home. but alas, the small amount of meal that he was allowed was not sufficient for him. i did not see him die myself, but i have been told by competent persons that he died about the time that i have stated. captain lauterbach goes on to provide some basic details, adds rachel, as to how she can start the process to apply for a pension. as a widow, she would be entitled to one, and although she was entitled to one. that process would become a years long time consuming pursuit for her. in part because of duties like captain lauterbach took upon himself that it wasn't a formal situation where there were documentation for it, as he said in a letter, and got her back to the letter. he says he is not completing david's mustering out papers. he's not completing the paperwork for david. and so it's left to rachel to put that together, which this one letter front and back shows us that some of that process went on for four years. the letter on the front side, on the far goes to town over there is rachel writing in response to a letter that she had sent previously to the missing soldiers office in washington, d.c. and she's correcting some information that she needs to to have publish the missing soldiers officer was established in 1865 by clara barton soon after, she finishes her medical assistance work with the union army and she sees that this kind of lack of information in a formalized system of telling families about the soldier's status of missing in action, killed in action, and whether they're returning from p.o.w. camps spurs her to start a office that deals with correspondence with veterans and for their families. they devise a way to publicize this by soliciting names from the family to be put into the local newspapers and then soliciting, then the response from veterans to write to the missing soldiers office with any information they may have with their about their comrades. so rachel uses this in a way that is a typical than many of the americans that were writing to the missing soldiers office because unlike some of americans who were looking for their husbands like rachel, were looking for fathers and uncles, she was looking for that information. she already knew. she already knew the outcome for for david what she needed was to have a witness who would be able to put this on paper, that she could secure the money that would support herself and the toddler son willing. so in writing, she wrote to the missing soldiers office to make sure that david's name spelled correctly. they had written to her to say that david walters would be included on one of these roles that would go to the local newspapers. and she corrected them that it had to be david and they flipped the paper over at the office and returned it to her with assurances that, yes, david, w walter's will be listed as a member of the fifth indiana cavalry and it's signed for clara barton in her name by one of the office workers, the missing soldiers office operated for the three years and during that time they connected over 22,000 americans with information about missing soldiers. this took about 100,000 letters that were circulated by the missing soldiers office of inquiries that they were sending out. and about personal letters like the one that they were sending to rachel, including the one here on their letter stationed that mentions that they are the office of correspondence. and it on this letter they are taking the testimony of one of the veterans by the name of john brown, who is also from indiana. and sharing that with rachel, that john brown has informed them that that he saw david die at four in south carolina. this is exactly the kind of information that rachel needed to secure a pension. but upon further work with the pension documents that are in the collection and those that are at the national archives, we know that it wasn't john brown's witness testimony or one of the other letters that we have in the collection, the four through the missing soldiers office, that finally, rachel, the pension there was a third veteran who came forward and gave witness testimony. and so after two years, almost three years of trying, she did secure the pension in september of 1865. sorry, 68. and we know that. only three months later she died, leaving their young son, willy in the care of her parents. samuel ward jr, and her mother sarah. and it's through the pension filing that sarah that rachel did that they were able to support willy with an $8 a month miner's pension. it's those kind of documents that help us put together the story of this family and their experiences through the civil war. and as as rachel is, many parts of this communication network between these brothers, this sisters and other members of their community, what is puzzling in a way, is how did we end up with the letters and how did the walter's family end up with rachel's letters returning from david? and, of course took the efforts of david, certainly to save his letters from rachel. that meant he carried those with him through all the states that he traveled. there's no sign on any of the envelopes that we have in the collection at any point that he say enclosed extra letters of hers and return them back to her. we do have one hint in one of the letters from john lauterbach back now, one where he does inform her of david's death that david's effects are at his own house and she is welcome to come to the lauterbach house and pick up those effects, including a ten case, which i think would have very well preserved these kind of paper records of this family and the words that they exchanged each other, like the mystery of how the letters returned. we, we, we came upon some other mysteries with this this story, with developing this. and one of them was, in fact, the the location of david's death, although we had these affidavits and other testimonies of his death of a prisoner of war camp, there is a headstone located in marietta national cemetery in marietta, georgia, in section a site for 73 that reads david walters company i fifth indiana calvary. and we can assure you there were no other david walters in company i of the fifth indiana calvary. and the site lists the date of death as june 5th, 1864, about three weeks after the date david is reported as captured. so in a time before dog tags dna, there was no way to really identify the dead after a battle other than those who knew them, hopefully being around to do so so. miss ids did happen and it is fully possible that there is somebody else in that grave, but it is still made out to david. so that was something we, you know, we had to to research and puzzle over. we are pretty certain that with the the sheer amount of testimonies that that rachel herself gathered, that, you know, his death did occur in a prisoner of war camp. but it was something to consider that again, there is a grave in georgia. the other item that we couldn't ever locate was, a photograph of any of of the writers of these letters, even though in multiple letters we have them asking for photographs, describing going and getting photographs taken, writing about sending photographs to each other, and then complementing each other photographs. so throughout the letters, we have all of these these comments about photographs of each other. and there are none that we could find. there were the they were none that were included with the donation. there were the family currently did have any they were able to provide us that earlier photo of their son later in life, but nothing from the time period. and when we asked experts in civil war photography, especially at the center for civil war photography, in other places, they mentioned that many photographs not labeled. these were often sent to family members. so why would you label them? but as a result, as soon as those family members passed that that that identity goes with them. so it's not uncommon to have unidentified photographs from the era. and the one that you're looking at right now was recently digitized by library of congress. this is in their collection, and it's simply labeled as an unidentified soldier of the fifth indiana calvary. so this is david's unit. so could that be possibly. but we we just don't know. and although the members of the walter's family are faceless to us now, they're voice still lives on, their story still lives on through the letters they saved and through the letters they wrote, they they documented what it was like to live through this terrible time in. american history and their story represents what many families went through during this time. and it was such a privilege for us to be able to really down into this story and to share it with you all. thank you. thank you. so hoping to take a q&a and i know we have a microphone in the audience because we're also on zoom online. so the microphone will be going around the audience and i know there's also potentially online questions as well. and we're hoping as we're sharing this collection through the book, that many others will come to this collection and bring their own questions about it as tom and i have any questions here. thank you. i have a two part question. first off, can you speak to. digitizing, transcribing this set of letters versus some of the other collections that you've worked through in the past? was this particularly challenging or was this pretty standard? was there any particular challenges with this collection versus others? i might add that with this collection, because of the various letter writers, there is a a sliding scale of difficulty, as we showed you with some of rachel's letters, she has very nice script. her her grammar tends to be kind of higher than most. so transcribing her letters were were on the easier part of that scale. david, on the other hand, from his letters, you can tell that he he was not as proficient in in his writing or his grammar. those proved to be a little more difficult to to pass out. but it did improve through the war. you could tell that as he kind of had practice, that he got better with with with writing home. as we mentioned earlier, several of his letters. we we think we're written by a different hand either john lauterbach or another soldier in his unit. but he does he does write some one of the other aspects of this is almost all of them are written in ink, which did make it easier. pencil has a tendency to smear and just over the years it it can be harder to read but ink helps stay as it is darker and it just allows you to to read a little easier. and in doing the transcriptions we tried to stay as true verbatim to what we found in the letters. so that means a lot of things are not spelled to a standard modern english and we actually kind of would advise people to read them almost aloud as many times. they would have probably been read aloud to share with with other family members and to share this kind of news. this is certainly a families that had gone to school, but for a different amounts of time. we looked at the census records and saw it different times that rachel ward and her siblings had gone to school for various amounts of time, as well as the many siblings in the walter's family. so it does explain a sort of variations in their education level and. so much more of their letters is almost in like an oral tradition about how their their to each other through through these documents. but they're also combining them with the etiquette of letter writing and some of those phrases. so those we tried to preserve. so my second question is so you mention you have about 180 letters in the collection. can you hazard a guess? and how much is we do know for a fact that there are missing letters because they will several of them are referenced. rachel will say in your letter of this date, which we don't have, i would say we have definitive some around maybe 15, 20 that are specifically referenced that we don't have we also don't have any of the letters that rachel sent to isaac or john wesley or the only letters of rachel's we have are the ones that she sent to david. so that kind of her missives to them are missing. so a lot of what she told them, we were we could learn through some of their letters back, you know, in your letter of this date, you mentioned this. so we could get little puzzle pieces of what she had written to them, but not her full letters. and we have about 15 envelopes without the contents. so we know that we have the wrappers, but we don't have what they had written. it is, but it helped us in ways that we use them to figure out where they were at certain times and so it did inform us about how they were traveling, where the brothers were at were at certain times the number of letters that rachel was receiving, as well. so they did fill in some of those gaps, even though we did not have the contents. behind. and it sounds like some of the important of these letters are the envelopes that they came in, the stamps that were on them. was it maybe you mentioned this, but is it common? and why do you do you have some insight as to why they did keep the envelopes? why not just the letters, especially thinking about trying to travel with all of these letters? it's just extra paper that you kind of have to bring with you. so what are your thoughts on that? i think it's partly it's maybe a little bit of let's have a wrapper on the outside to protect these letters as you're carrying them. it does also does become part of the story. and yes, some families choose to just save the contents of the letters and some museums and archives to save the the letters, not the envelopes. and in this case, we have it certainly was when the family was donating it. the first items that they donated, the smithsonian. were seven of the envelopes. and then the letters came a year later, when they were ready to to donate, there was and i think it was partly just for them and for what it does for us. it tells part of that story of who has written on that address, how that moved, and have some of those dates that some of these letters don't include all the dates and places that they were and maybe some of that also helped. rachel, you know, where people were and why she saved some of those. we have a couple coming in online. so the first that i have here is thank you for the wonderful and you mentioned that the letters themselves represent the narrative of the family's wartime experiences as editors. how much work did you have to do to fill in the gaps between the letters, or are there no significant gaps in the collection and it's fairly robust. between 1861 through 1865. from the beginning of the war, and then through the aftermath. what tom and i really tried to do was not intervene too much. we tried to, in the way that we approached the transcriptions, we tried to leave it as verbatim as possible. we used notes to to help identify some places and and people's names that are maybe a little bit harder to read some period terms, but it's the introductory essays that we give that are about each of the that i think fill in the this sort of put it in the context of what's happening in the nation, what's happening in the v.a., what's happening in the community in which rachel lived and the walter's brothers had lived. so i think we filled not many of the gaps. it was pretty small. we most of the wartime experiences, lynn said, was was well-represented in the letters we we did occasionally have to look at records of the units where they may have been to confirm certain things, especially when, for example, when isaac wrote in the camp, the 20th indiana, that that's not really a good. so being able to to kind of say, okay here but again that information was there. we knew they were in the camp for the 23rd year and we just had a pass it out a little bit. most of the information we added would be things kind of more the background things from census records, from genealogical records, things like that, which was not necessarily in the letter. so that was really where we added most. but again, they they did provide a wealth of information that in the letters themselves that that didn't require us to go too deep into that area. and at least one occasion we did correct something to do. we found that rachel had misstated one of hers. and in june of 1864 and as many of us have this sort of moment, she wrote 1863, but none of the events that she's recording matched up with. she talks about someone's death and someone's marriage, which we knew from some of the other letters had actually happened in 1864. so we made a note of that. a couple more here to so has clara barton's missing soldiers office in washington dc been turned into a museum? it is, yes. it is a museum on seventh street. it's part of a complex with the national civil war medicine museum and is is open. and then another common. thank you for the very interesting talk and bringing these letter writers to life. were there any surprises in the letters other than learning about the death or intimate details that would not be expected for that time period. surprises i was when when going through these letters the first time, especially kind of working on the transcripts and whatnot, the bluntness of isaac in his letter that we talked about to to rachel about, you know, david's experience, that kind of caught me off guard. i was i was a little surprised that at how kind of forward he was with that information, especially in a kind of moment where he's trying to be consoling. so i don't know if that was a surprise, but that did that did hit pretty hard, as did captain lauterbach's letter. you know, as you're following along, you're you know, you're almost rooting. and then, you know, to get to that letter, it was it was very, you know, a punch in the gut, if you would, to to suddenly read that again. you you kind of get invested in this family that you're you're following their story. you're seeing, you know, what they're doing, what they're experiencing. rachel often writes about how much she misses david, and he writes about how much he would like to go home, things like that. so to kind of get to that point was, again, kind of a surprise, if you would. i can't think of any surprising details that were shared. yeah, i think this surprises almost in reading them. when you read them for the first time, it's almost put your put you in the experience of being the recipient and and this is all news. so if it's the first time through of reading them, it's as the story unfolds as it had to the recipient. but as many times as we've read it, no surprises are there. but some of the poignant moments certainly do remain with you. and then do any of the letters comment on the literacy or ability ability to write home of other soldiers in the various units or of overcoming those challenges? yes, there's some of those kind of conventions of many letter writers often write about excuse me, for my penmanship very much. that was rachel would do that far more than i would say the brother is or david would do, and she's very conscious of it. once in a while they'll write about the sort of state of the material that you're using. and so sorry about the the ink is not very strong at this time. apologized when they didn't have a stamp. we have a letter from john wesley where he didn't expect to have had a stamp to pay for it. and so rachel would have had to pay for it upon delivery. but we do have that envelope and know that he must have found a stamp at some point. and there are moments where they talk about, of course, the sending and receiving of letters, but there's also moments where we do see them, particularly between david and rachel, start to use similar expressions in similar ways that they're doing. they're there post scripts and talking to each other. so there is certainly a consciousness in how they're writing to each other about letters. and as we mentioned, some of the letters from david are clearly in a different handwriting. so we don't know if he was unable to or if he was self-conscious his writing. but he it is obvious that at some point someone else is writing letters, that he's dictating. but then we do also have letters in his hand. so we don't know if he just didn't have someone who could write for him or if he had finally been taking a chance. but when he kind of starts copying some of rachel's styles, that is in his hand. so it is interesting to see him kind of learning from her letter writing technique in his own letters, and then we have one more. can you talk about the mail delivery system during that time? yeah, for the union forces and americans on the union side, it was pretty much business as usual, except for the mail had stopped being exchanged with the confederate states. so for getting mail to p.o.w. is to those who were trying to cross the line. many americans were using the express companies and there was could go through what were called excuse me, flag of truce points where there would be exchanges of goods, including the mail for the walters and their letters pretty were sort of on that timely convention that they were used to of the mail moving fairly rapidly with the strong railway system in the north and through up to the the front that was done through the post office department, working through what they called special agents who were the intermediaries between the post office department and the military in many ways, the military had assigned most of the mail duties to privates and mail who were taking the mail to and from the headquarters. and and that mail moved fairly rapidly. and at sometimes some surprising moments that would be delivered during combat. but we do know that that there times where the walter's do and other americans and the civil war letters do note about the changes in their their mail system. but for the most part, they're they're fairly open in how they talk about the news of the day. they're not censored letters in any way. the soldier's letters are not censored. so anything they off is what they've self-censored. we have one more comment and it is that david and rachel are my great great great grandparents and this has been a wonderful discussion to join. so thank you, lynn and tom. that's wonderful. thank you. thank you. well, thank you for coming to our panel this morning entitled tale of three presidential homes the good, the bad and the ugly. our panel today will discuss identity politics and anti-racist ideology have infected the presidential homes in virginia and also what this movement aims to do to our nation's cherished ideals. but this corruption of history has deep roots in the progressive left's collective mind and the aggressive of this ideology will not in presidential homes oin

Transcripts For CSPAN2 The Civil War Letters Between Home And The Front 20221008

the written word, particularly at a time when families are frequently separated for the first time and they have provided the information that you need to not only understand the family networks, but the community networks and the postal network and what's happening geopolitically in the united states during the civil war. so really looking forward to this talk. lynn heidelberg is a curator here at the smithsonian national postal museum. she's specializes in the history of u.s. postal service and has published essays and created several exhibits, specifically in this case on military mail, including mail call, which you can visit out in the gallery floor as well as my fellow soldiers letters from world war one, for which she received the smithson sheehan secretary's research prize in 2018. thomas halon curates the lighter than air collections, including balloons, lamps and airships at the smithsonian national air and space museum. his research focuses on ballooning in the civil war, as well as the use of airships and blimps in america. he is the coauthor of milestones of flight the epic of aviation with the national air and space museum. so in december 1863, rachel ward walters sat down to write a letter from her home in northwestern indiana, and she opened it in a phrase to her husband, who was miles away serving in the fifth indiana calvary. and she wrote, quote, kind and affectionate companion once more. i attempt to address you by the silent language of the pen. four months later, her sister, phoebe ward duncan, used very similar words when she wrote to david as well in keeping up these family connections. and she wrote in april 1864, my dear brother, after a shameful silence, which i beg to pardon you, i once again address you by the silent language of the pen. and although rachel and phoebe say that their language is silence, we're hoping that that through their letters in the collection, that we will talk about tonight, that their words come alive and their expressions that they share with their family, their thoughts and their perspective, in particular during a moment of national strife, and certainly for this family and the individuals within it and the phrases that rachel and phoebe and others used about the silent language of the pen are really embody what people were trying to do with the mail. and to keep up that communication. those kind of phrases were the conventions of the time. they were used to a certain etiquette of letter writing, and it was very widespread. so it was common to to run into such phrases as these. they were commonly taught when at school for reading and writing purposes. and it was a time where more and more people were writing letters. in the mid 19th century, more americans were becoming accustomed to using the mail. it had become far more affordable, all with the reforms of the post office in the mid 19th century, making the postage more affordable and using innovations like the postage stamp which make it far more easy to access. and in that time, the americans had become used to a reliable mail service, that they had become used to a certain timeliness of those letters and they talked to each other through that language of those letters about the timeliness and always making note of when they had received a letter and apologizing if they were delayed. and of course, those kind of delays became far more emotionally compounded when times of war, like the walter's, a family experienced. and so turning to those kind of stop phrases that rachel and phoebe used was a way to sort of get yourself writing and being able to to use some of those customs that everybody was was used to at a time where some of the mail was not flowing as easily as it had before. but the post office department and the military made every effort to keep the personal letters flowing, particularly through the lines of the homefront. and and there was on the front keeping both informed of the reasons why they were fighting and and keeping them in touch with each other. it's these kind of letters that we're sharing through this collection tonight that's here at the national postal museum. and it came to us in to installments from the walter's family of of indiana. they donated it to the smithsonian in the first few items that came to the smithsonian in 1964, donated by arthur walters, the grandson of david and rachel walter's, and his daughter, june walters. leonard donated the bulk of the collection of the letters in 1991. the picture here is of willard and amelia. walter's this willard being the son of david and rachel walters. so it's through their family line that we have these letters to share with you and share with american public in this donation. it becomes clear why the walter's family valued these letters. there's 180 letters and papers, mostly of the use of envelopes that show the way that the mail travel, the cost of that mail. when the address had to change, to find somebody who had relocated and the postmarks of the work that the post office was doing to to process those mail. we have about 100 of those envelopes and about 80 or so letters and a few items of ephemera that the family enclosed while trying to communicate with each other, including the item in the middle here, which is a special order that was issued in 1863, and that david had chosen to enclose in this envelope with his letter that's pictured. and this was at a time while david was serving in kentucky, a border state, and working with the fifth indiana calvary to secure a peace in the area. in particular, this special order declared martial law in the counties so that the state election could go along peacefully. so this is one of the kind of items that he chose to share with his wife, to let her know the kind of experiences that he was having. and then these passed through the family and into the collection. so we're fortunate to have not only their letters and their words, but also these kind of mementos that they shared, even some small souvenirs, but also some of the pension documents that the family worked with to to work in the aftermath of the war. the entire collection actually spans from the beginning of the war, and it just pre-war of 1859, with a few letters with rachel beginning the relationship with david just before they were married. and it closes with her letters. in 1868. through this wonderful collection. we were able to really start to pull out the details, not only about the experience during the war, but but also the experience that each of these different family members, each of these different writers had. and we started by completing an accurate transcription of the letters. and then we placed them in chronological order. and once we did that, they were no longer just 180 pieces of individual pieces of mail and envelopes. but there was a story. there was a narrative that that evolved from that. we were really able to see conversations start to develop the these family members would write a letter and someone would respond to questions that were were sent in that. and it really, again, gave them a life that they they you didn't realize before that time. you really start to see connections form this network that's created in this family of letter writers so that they could keep up with what was going on and understand what experience each of them is having. the although there are several writers in the collection that only have a few mentions like phoebe, as lynn mentioned, the collection really consists of these five main writers. they're the ones that really are the the heart and soul of the collection. first, we have rachel jane ward as lynn mentioned, she marries david walters on december 16th, 1860, becoming rachel walters. she becomes this nexus of this communication hub. she is one of the most literate of all the writers and in fact, works as a schoolteacher a year later. and she really is the one that the brothers and brother, her brothers in law and her husband are writing to her. and then she's disseminating that information back to the other brothers and also including messages from what's going on at home, you know, in their county or in their individual houses and anything that will help them stay connected to their home. so she becomes a critical element of this. this group of of letters. next, we have david walters, her husband, who, as lynn mentioned, joined the fifth indiana calvary. he serves generally in the central area of the country. we have isaac walters, who is one of the first of the brothers to join up. he joins the 20th indiana infantry. he serves along the east coast in the eastern theater of the war, mostly in virginia. we have john wesley walters, the youngest of the brothers. he joins the 46th indiana infantry and he's stationed in, at the time, the western theater, which is actually the mississippi river. and these three brothers are literally sent to the three corners of the war. they're as geographically separate as they can be. and it only makes that network of communication even more important. and then finally, we have john louderback. he's in david's company. he eventually becomes the commanding officer of david's company. but through his letters, we were able to decipher that some of david's early letters are most likely written by him. so most likely dictated by david. but written by john louderback to send messages home and the as we follow these letters through the conflicts, you really start to see the individual personalities come through. you see different penmanship, different grammar, different phrases that are used by the writers. for example, this is one of rachel's letters. she uses a blue ink almost exclusively through the war. there's a few that are not. but. but she's really this is this is one of the ways you could quickly tell that it was one of rachel's letters. and here she draws a picture of a a u.s. flag with the words union forever on it. this is the only one that she illustrated. but again, it it gives it such a personal touch. it it's so important to to see who these people were, what, you know, why were they writing these letters and it's it again, they really become these individuals instead of just, you know, kind of random pieces of paper. so although we have numerous letters in the collection, we've selected a few highlights, too, to present to you tonight to show you again who who this family was, who, who these people were. so the first one we have here is from isaac walters. he is described as being five foot ten inches with dark hair and gray eyes, a very basic description at the time. when he joins up, he's unmarried. he's just shy of his 29th birthday. he's the first of the walters brothers to join the union army. he joins company f of the 20th indiana. as we mentioned, he officially musters in on july 22nd, 1861. and this is the first letter that we have in the collection. the first one that he sent home, dated october 17th, 1861. so between that time, he is in training camp in indiana before his unit is again shipped out to the east coast. and he actually finds himself in the eastern theater of war along some of the coastal islands of north carolina. the union makes an effort early in the war to capture some of those islands, to protect naval assets that were going to be going up and down the coast. and he is involved in some of these very early campaigns. and he he also so in this letter, one of the first things he specifically mentions is news that he had received most likely from rachel in a previous letter, which is not in the collection. and he writes about he mentions news from home and says, quote, i was a little surprised to hear that you had an air so soon, but i hope you will live and do well in order that dave will have somebody to set up corn for him. i fancy his name very much. i believe it is the very name that i would have given him myself. so what he's responding to is the fact that david and rachel had had a son, willard, who you'd seen in that previous picture. and they had obviously just informed isaac of his birth. so, again, you're already starting to see this network forming the the importance of these letters as they're sharing information back and forth. isaac goes on to give some detail about what he's experienced back to the family, describing his experiences in north carolina. he writes, there was nearly half of the regiment taking medicine at the present time, and there is still more taking sick. this is a very sickly whole. so that's not how most people would describe hatteras nowadays. but at the time this was what he experienced. there was great sickness there and his regiment really suffered. why they were there. so this really is a the start of a grueling campaign for the 20th indiana. they end up fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the civil war. and isaac takes part in many of them. so this kind of beginning stage of the war for him, definitely leads to to more serious combat later. almost a year after the letter by isaac. two of his brothers join up. they both fall into, including the oldest brother of the walter's eli walter's, who joins with isaac in the 20 at the indiana. their third brother in line wine. david walter's joins in september of 1862 with the fifth indiana calvary. and it's shortly thereafter that he reports to camp joe reynolds in indianapolis over 100 miles from his home, leaving his wife and his infant son. from the records, we know a little bit about david walters and his time with the fifth indiana calvary. we find a little bit about his past in the military records as well, that he was a farmer, that he was 23 years of three years of age when he volunteered that like his brother isaac, he was also five foot ten, had a dark complexion and dark hair and brown eyes. so those are the only ways that we have to picture. david, other than his letters. we do know that once he reached indianapolis, he was soon put through the paces of drilling. and he writes this to his wife about this. this would prepare him with the fifth indiana calvary and the duties that they would soon have through the middle of the country. and later in the war, preparing for the campaign through georgia at the time that he writes this in october. first, he writes to his wife about some of the excitement of his having with these new events and having joined and becoming a soldier. he writes, quote, we are drilling about as strong as ever we can. and yesterday, there was about 6000 on drill. at one time. and today we had about the same number of soldiers and about 30 to 40000 spectators. we had the biggest time today that we had since i've been here. we had a regular sham battle and fired about 25 rounds apiece. and there was infantry and calvary and two cannon. and the engagement. and there was also a general two of you and the governor. and he goes on to tell his wife the reasons why he had volunteered and the moment he writes, i quote, i'm sorry that your put so much trouble with our things. it can't be help now. and i feel i'm doing my duty to help and maintain the laws of our country and put down the wicked rebellion. it's one of the few times in the series of about 18 letters we have in the collection that he discusses the reason why he has joined up and in a way, the void that he enclosed this kind of echoes what he is saying in the letter with the patriotic symbols that it has on it. at the center of it is a american eagle and the seal of the u.s. around it are 34 pennants with abbreviations for 34 states, including all of the states that had recently seceded during the war. and just a few days time, his wife was writing a letter at home and 20 year old and raising their one year old willie. she was writing about her new experience of moving from royals center in their home that she had shared with david to star city closer to some of her other family members. she discusses going to church and the things about farming. and again, as tom pointed out, using her blue ink, that was very common. this is one of the letters that is available to see in the gallery this evening and shows this side of the page of a two sided page. well worn and likely to have been re read as she wrote to david about what was going on at home. she wrote, i quote, william, he's not very well and he's cutting his teeth, which makes him very fretful, but he's getting better. so he can go down and play a little. and i hope these lines reach you and that you find you will. i received two letters today and one from you lately was last thursday evening and one on monday evening. that was the one that you sent that was directed to royal center and then was re mailed when it was sent on to star city. and like many conventions of the time, she does keep recounting about the way the mail was moving and her kind of duty and being a good letter writer. and she closes with saying, quote, i must close. is there waiting to take the letter to the office. and willie is crying for me to take him. so please write soon as you get this. and that pleading for more letters is a common thread throughout the walters family. several months later, rachel receives a letter from john wesley. he is described as similar to isaac, though he's shorter at five foot six. he's the youngest of the brothers. he's only 20 years old. when he joins the regiment. during the 46 indiana, he mustered into union service in october of 1861 and receives training in indiana before again joining the union army, moving down the mississippi river. he is he and his unit are actively engaged in several of the early battles in that that theater, including a battle for island number ten, which was a fortified island. the confederate army had built up to try to prevent any ships from going by that they fight to to take to open up the way the this specific letter written june 10th, 1863. details some of the nonstop campaigning that john wesley had experienced with his unit. and he uses this letter to inform the family of wound he had received. he writes, we found them. i found them referring to the confederate army at a place called the champions hill. there is where i got wounded. a musket ball struck me on my right side, just above the hip. we lay there three weeks. this letter helped dispel some rumors that had reached indiana that he'd actually been killed in the battle champion hill battle that preceded what would be the siege of vicksburg and the the this ability to send that home certainly must have relieved those. and to dispel such a rumor, he also explains in this letter that after being kind of stuck at the on the battlefield for so long, he is eventually moved to a a larger hospital in memphis to recover. he also relays to rachel how glad he was to have received a letter from her and received news from back home. he writes. you also spoke about david. i'm glad you told me where he is. i wrote him a long letter if he gets it. i want you to let me know what he thought of it. so again, this this is another example of just how important thisk is to the brothers. not only are they receiving news from home, but one of the quickest way for them to receive news from the other brothers is to go receive it from from rachel. so they're they're literally using her as kind of the the middle two to get that information back. and forth. he his unit goes on to participate in the siege of vicksburg, as i mentioned. he, however, does not. it takes him some time to recover from the wounds he received at champions hill. he's placed in some roles guarding railroads and whatnot behind the union lines as he recovers from that. but rachel continues to write to isaac and john wesley throughout their service. again, acting as this this nexus. and she, of course, continues to write to david while he's in the field. so this letter that we selected from rachel to david is about a year after that one from john wesley. it's mid-may 1864, and her life is rather busy on the home front. she's again sharing all the news about the family, the health of the neighbors. and is talking about the union cause. but much of it focuses on herself. and there's many things that she's doing. so i'll read you a long passage that she has and let her words speak for themselves. quote, i'm still trying to teach school. and the prospect begins to look a little fairer. my school average from about 20 to 4 to about 28. this week. it looks a little more encouraging. and this saturday, i've been covering the corn for pap and about for noon. and i expect to help this afternoon as well. he's got about 18 acres planted and i don't know how much he's going to plant really as well. and he's well pleased to see me come home. we always runs to me and he says that he's mama's boy and pies boy. and he says the pause down in dixie fighting rebels. and so i asked him what he thought about pie and what would perfection when he came home. and he said he thought the pinewood fetch him some little boots. but i'm ready now to go out to the field. and so i must finish this a little while later. and she does too. you. continues the letter the next day on may 15th, this time telling david about visiting his sister martha. she tells them about a letter that she received from his sister emeline and we do have correspondence from both of those sisters in the collection as well. but it's a closing that she uses at the end of this may 15th letter in which she writes again about sort of the receiving the letters and the timeline. and she writes, quote, i will close hoping to hear from you as soon as possible and try to write oftener as i have been trying to do. i'll send you a few stamps in this letter. i will send you more at the time, but i'm afraid you might not get them. and in some ways, some of the web, as we were looking at the letters, there were things that were prescient in many of these at the time that she is writing. and may 14, through 15. david is engaged at the battle of masaka in northern georgia. it's a pretty evenly matched battle between the union and the confederate forces. it actually is an inconclusive battle, but his regiment and his company suffer a number of casualty issues, including the capture of david, which we believe happened on may 14th. it's not until later in may. does rachel receive word about david's capture? and this is all through the auspices of his commanding officer, john louderback, who has taken it upon himself to write a letter before he himself is captured at the next battle that the fifth indiana calvary is engaged in and sent on to the anderson prison, andersonville prison. this letter from ice rachel is written only a few months later and he has obviously learned the information about david's capture from racl. rachel. he responds in this letter to offer his condolences that that david had been captured. as we follow this family through the war, through these letters, this one particularly became quite heartbreaking. isaac's tone shifts dramatically from some of his early missives in the war to. to this point. and you can really start to see how not only the campaigns that he's engaged in are wearing on him, but the news from what's happening to his brothers, what's happening to his family is also starting to weigh on him more and more. he he the condolences he offers are as such. quote, i feel very sorry for you that you can't hear from david. you must be on great suspense and you must feel very lonely. but you must look upon the bright side of the picture and hope for the best. i think he will turn up all right some time. if the gray backs don't starve to death and i hope they will fail in this if they undertake it. i think david has a pretty good constitution and will get through. all right. if he is only alive. so again, this just this small, you know, portion of the letter just showcases, again, the suffering that, you know, isaac is feeling for his brother and being so far from home, being unable to know how his brother's doing and that his one connection is rachel. the the war weariness that that isaac is suffering comes through also. and later in this letter, he writes, i think the war will close sometime or never if it never closes, i guess there is no danger of us poor soldiers getting out of a job. i will close for the present, hoping soon to hear from you. and this. the sullen attitude most likely comes from the fact that his unit had not been engaged almost continuously in the siege of petersburg city in richmond, which the union army was attempting to capture. and then capturing richmond, virginia, the capital, the confederacy. so he even writes that he's located in the camp during the siege at that time. so the war is again weighing heavily on isaac as as all the family, as it continues, as the the suffering continues for the family. this letter written about a year later by john lauterbach to rachel walters, is represents the type of letter that no one went to receive during the war, but so many did. he is writing to rachel to inform her of the death of her husband during the civil war. there was no formal way for families to be informed of such matters. oftentimes times, casualties from units would be published in local newspapers, or it was up to a commanding officer to write home to provide such details. lauterbach starts the letter b not weary or troubled. trust in the lord, for he is able to comfort. he continues, i think i am safe in saying that your husband, d.w walters, died in rebel prison about the 10th of february. i saw him about the fifth. he was done unable to help himself. i waited on him and gave him as much comfort as i could until i was taken down myself. he often spoke of you and his little boy, which he spoke of with a great deal of respect and seemed to be waiting with a great deal of anxiety for the time to come. when the prison doors would be thrown open and he could return to his loved ones at home. but alas, the small amount of meal that he was allowed was not sufficient for him. i did not see him die myself, but i have been told by competent persons that he died about the time that i have stated. captain lauterbach goes on to provide some basic details, adds rachel, as to how she can start the process to apply for a pension. as a widow, she would be entitled to one, and although she was entitled to one. that process would become a years long time consuming pursuit for her. in part because of duties like captain lauterbach took upon himself that it wasn't a formal situation where there were documentation for it, as he said in a letter, and got her back to the letter. he says he is not completing david's mustering out papers. he's not completing the paperwork for david. and so it's left to rachel to put that together, which this one letter front and back shows us that some of that process went on for four years. the letter on the front side, on the far goes to town over there is rachel writing in response to a letter that she had sent previously to the missing soldiers office in washington, d.c. and she's correcting some information that she needs to to have publish the missing soldiers officer was established in 1865 by clara barton soon after, she finishes her medical assistance work with the union army and she sees that this kind of lack of information in a formalized system of telling families about the soldier's status of missing in action, killed in action, and whether they're returning from p.o.w. camps spurs her to start a office that deals with correspondence with veterans and for their families. they devise a way to publicize this by soliciting names from the family to be put into the local newspapers and then soliciting, then the response from veterans to write to the missing soldiers office with any information they may have with their about their comrades. so rachel uses this in a way that is a typical than many of the americans that were writing to the missing soldiers office because unlike some of americans who were looking for their husbands like rachel, were looking for fathers and uncles, she was looking for that information. she already knew. she already knew the outcome for for david what she needed was to have a witness who would be able to put this on paper, that she could secure the money that would support herself and the toddler son willing. so in writing, she wrote to the missing soldiers office to make sure that david's name spelled correctly. they had written to her to say that david walters would be included on one of these roles that would go to the local newspapers. and she corrected them that it had to be david and they flipped the paper over at the office and returned it to her with assurances that, yes, david, w walter's will be listed as a member of the fifth indiana cavalry and it's signed for clara barton in her name by one of the office workers, the missing soldiers office operated for the three years and during that time they connected over 22,000 americans with information about missing soldiers. this took about 100,000 letters that were circulated by the missing soldiers office of inquiries that they were sending out. and about personal letters like the one that they were sending to rachel, including the one here on their letter stationed that mentions that they are the office of correspondence. and it on this letter they are taking the testimony of one of the veterans by the name of john brown, who is also from indiana. and sharing that with rachel, that john brown has informed them that that he saw david die at four in south carolina. this is exactly the kind of information that rachel needed to secure a pension. but upon further work with the pension documents that are in the collection and those that are at the national archives, we know that it wasn't john brown's witness testimony or one of the other letters that we have in the collection, the four through the missing soldiers office, that finally, rachel, the pension there was a third veteran who came forward and gave witness testimony. and so after two years, almost three years of trying, she did secure the pension in september of 1865. sorry, 68. and we know that. only three months later she died, leaving their young son, willy in the care of her parents. samuel ward jr, and her mother sarah. and it's through the pension filing that sarah that rachel did that they were able to support willy with an $8 a month miner's pension. it's those kind of documents that help us put together the story of this family and their experiences through the civil war. and as as rachel is, many parts of this communication network between these brothers, this sisters and other members of their community, what is puzzling in a way, is how did we end up with the letters and how did the walter's family end up with rachel's letters returning from david? and, of course took the efforts of david, certainly to save his letters from rachel. that meant he carried those with him through all the states that he traveled. there's no sign on any of the envelopes that we have in the collection at any point that he say enclosed extra letters of hers and return them back to her. we do have one hint in one of the letters from john lauterbach back now, one where he does inform her of david's death that david's effects are at his own house and she is welcome to come to the lauterbach house and pick up those effects, including a ten case, which i think would have very well preserved these kind of paper records of this family and the words that they exchanged each other, like the mystery of how the letters returned. we, we, we came upon some other mysteries with this this story, wiev this. and one of them was, in fact, the the location of david's death, although we had these affidavits and other testimonies of his death of a prisoner of war camp, there is a headstone located in marietta national cemetery in marietta, georgia, in section a site for 73 that reads david walters company i fifth indiana calvary. and we can assure you there were no other david walters in company i of the fifth indiana calvary. and the site lists the date of death as june 5th, 1864, about three weeks after the date david is reported as captured. so in a time before dog tags dna, there was no way to really identify the dead after a battle other than those who knew them, hopefully being around to do so so. miss ids did happen and it is fully possible that there is somebody else in that grave, but it is still made out to david. so that was something we, you know, we had to to research and puzzle over. we are pretty certain that with the the sheer amount of testimonies that that rachel herself gathered, that, you know, his death did occur in a prisoner of war camp. but it was something to consider that again, there is a grave in georgia. the other item that we couldn't ever locate was, a photograph of any of of the writers of these letters, even though in multiple letters we have them asking for photographs, describing going and getting photographs taken, writing about sending photographs to each other, and then complementing each other photographs. so throughout the letters, we have all of these these comments about photographs of each other. and there are none that we could find. there were the they were none that were included with the donation. there were the family currently did have any they were able to provide us that earlier photo of their son later in life, but nothing from the time period. and when we asked experts in civil war photography, especially at the center for civil war photography, in other places, they mentioned that many photographs not labeled. these were often sent to family members. so why would you label them? but as a result, as soon as those family members passed that that that identity goes with them. so it's not uncommon to have unidentified photographs from the era. and the one that you're looking at right now was recently digitized by library of congress. this is in their collection, and it's simply labeled as an unidentified soldier of the fifth indiana calvary. so this is david's unit. so could that be possibly. but we we just don't know. and although the members of the walter's family are faceless to us now, they're voice still lives on, their story still lives on through the letters they saved and through the letters they wrote, they they documented what it was like to live through this terrible time in. american history and their story represents what many families went through during this time. and it was such a privilege for us to be able to really down into this story and to share it with you all. thank you. thank you. so hoping to take a q&a and i know we have a microphone in the audience because we're also on zoom online. so the microphone will be going around the audience and i know there's also potentially online questions as well. and we're hoping as we're sharing this collection through the book, that many others will come to this collection and bring their own questions about it as tom and i have any questions here. thank you. i have a two part question. first off, can you speak to. digitizing, transcribing this set of letters versus some of the other collections that you've worked through in the past? was this particularly challenging or was this pretty standard? was there any particular challenges with this collection versus others? i might add that with this collection, because of the various letter writers, there is a a sliding scale of difficulty, as we showed you with some of rachel's letters, she has very nice script. her her grammar tends to be kind of higher than most. so transcribing her letters were were on the easier part of that scale. david, on the other hand, from his letters, you can tell that he he was not as proficient in in his writing or his grammar. those proved to be a little more difficult to to pass out. but it did improve through the war. you could tell that as he kind of had practice, that he got better with with with writing home. as we mentioned earlier, several of his letters. we we think we're written by a different hand either john lauterbach or another soldier in his unit. but he does he does write some one of the other aspects of this is almost all of them are written in ink, which did make it easier. pencil has a tendency to smear and just over the years it it can be harder to read but ink helps stay as it is darker and it just allows you to to read a little easier. and in doing the transcriptions we tried to stay as true verbatim to what we found in the letters. so that means a lot of things are not spelled to a standard modern english and we actually kind of would advise people to read them almost aloud as many times. they would have probably been read aloud to share with with other family members and to share this kind of news. this is certainly a families that had gone to school, but for a different amounts of time. we looked at the census records and saw it different times that rachel ward and her siblings had gone to school for various amounts of time, as well as the many siblings in the walter's family. so it does explain a sort of variations in their education level and. so much more of their letters is almost in like an oral tradition about how their their to each other through through these documents. but they're also combining them with the etiquette of letter writing and some of those phrases. so those we tried to preserve. so my second question is so you mention you have about 180 letters in the collection. can you hazard a guess? and how much is we do know for a fact that there are missing letters because they will several of them are referenced. rachel will say in your letter of this date, which we don't have, i would say we have definitive some around maybe 15, 20 that are specifically referenced that we don't have we also don't have any of the letters that rachel sent to isaac or john wesley or the only letters of rachel's we have are the ones that she sent to david. so that kind of her missives to them are missing. so a lot of what she told them, we were we could learn through some of their letters back, you know, in your letter of this date, you mentioned this. so we could get little puzzle pieces of what she had written to them, but not her full letters. and we have about 15 envelopes without the contents. so we know that we have the wrappers, but we don't have what they had written. it is, but it helped us in ways that we use them to figure out where they were at certain times and so it did inform us about how they were traveling, where the brothers were at were at certain times the number of letters that rachel was receiving, as well. so they did fill in some of those gaps, even though we did not have the contents. behind. and it sounds like some of the important of these letters are the envelopes that they came in, the stamps that were on them. was it maybe you mentioned this, but is it common? and why do you do you have some insight as to why they did keep the envelopes? why not just the letters, especially thinking about trying to travel with all of these letters? it's just extra paper that you kind of have to bring with you. so what are your thoughts on that? i think it's partly it's maybe a little bit of let's have a wrapper on the outside to protect these letters as you're carrying them. it does also does become part of the story. and yes, some families choose to just save the contents of the letters and some museums and archives to save the the letters, not the envelopes. and in this case, we have it certainly was when the family was donating it. the first items that they donated, the smithsonian. were seven of the envelopes. and then the letters came a year later, when they were ready to to donate, there was and i think it was partly just for them and for what it does for us. it tells part of that story of who has written on that address, how that moved, and have some of those dates that some of these letters don't include all the dates and places that they were and maybe some of that also helped. rachel, you know, where people were and why she saved some of those. we have a couple coming in online. so the first that i have here is thank you for the wonderful and you mentioned that the letters themselves represent the narrative of the family's wartime experiences as editors. how much work did you have to do to fill in the gaps between the letters, or are there no significant gaps in the collection and it's fairly robust. between 1861 through 1865. from the beginning of the war, and then through the aftermath. what tom and i really tried to do was not intervene too much. we tried to, in the way that we approached the transcriptions, we tried to leave it as verbatim as possible. we used notes to to help identify some places and and people's names that are maybe a little bit harder to read some period terms, but it's the introductory essays that we give that are about each of the that i think fill in the this sort of put it in the context of what's happening in the nation, what's happening in the v.a., what's happening in the community in which rachel lived and the walter's brothers had lived. so i think we filled not many of the gaps. it was pretty small. we most of the wartime experiences, lynn said, was was well-represented in the letters we we did occasionally have to look at records of the units where they may have been to confirm certain things, especially when, for example, when isaac wrote in the camp, the 20th indiana, that that's not really a good. so being able to to kind of say, okay here but again that information was there. we knew they were in the camp for the 23rd year and we just had a pass it out a little bit. most of the information we added would be things kind of more the background things from census records, from genealogical records, things like that, which was not necessarily in the letter. so that was really where we added most. but again, they they did provide a wealth of information that in the letters themselves that that didn't require us to go too deep into that area. and at least one occasion we did correct something to do. we found that rachel had misstated one of hers. and in june of 1864 and as many of us have this sort of moment, she wrote 1863, but none of the events that she's recording matched up with. she talks about someone's death and someone's marriage, which we knew from some of the other letters had actually happened in 1864. so we made a note of that. a couple more here to so has clara barton's missing soldiers office in washington dc been turned into a museum? it is, yes. it is a museum on seventh street. it's part of a complex with the national civil war medicine museum and is is open. and then another common. thank you for the very interesting talk and bringing these letter writers to life. were there any surprises in the letters other than learning about the death or intimate details that would not be expected for that time period. surprises i was when when going through these letters the first time, especially kind of working on the transcripts and whatnot, the bluntness of isaac in his letter that we talked about to to rachel about, you know, david's experience, that kind of caught me off guard. i was i was a little surprised that at how kind of forward he was with that information, especially in a kind of moment where he's trying to be consoling. so i don't know if that was a surprise, but that did that did hit pretty hard, as did captain lauterbach's letter. you know, as you're following along, you're you know, you're almost rooting. and then, you know, to get to that letter, it was it was very, you know, a punch in the gut, if you would, to to suddenly read that again. you you kind of get invested in this family that you're you're following their story. you're seeing, you know, what they're doing, what they're experiencing. rachel often writes about how much she misses david, and he writes about how much he would like to go home, things like that. so to kind of get to that point was, again, kind of a surprise, if you would. i can't think of any surprising details that were shared. yeah, i think this surprises almost in reading them. when you read them for the first time, it's almost put your put you in the experience of being the recipient and and this is all news. so if it's the first time through of reading them, it's as the story unfolds as it had to the recipient. but as many times as we've read it, no surprises are there. but some of the poignant moments certainly do remain with you. and then do any of the letters comment on the literacy or ability ability to write home of other soldiers in the various units or of overcoming those challenges? yes, there's some of those kind of conventions of many letter writers often write about excuse me, for my penmanship very much. that was rachel would do that far more than i would say the brother is or david would do, and she's very conscious of it. once in a while they'll write about the sort of state of the material that you're using. and so sorry about the the ink is not very strong at this time. apologized when they didn't have a stamp. we have a letter from john wesley where he didn't expect to have had a stamp to pay for it. and so rachel would have had to pay for it upon delivery. but we do have that envelope and know that he must have found a stamp at some point. and there are moments where they talk about, of course, the sending and receiving of letters, but there's also moments where we do see them, particularly between david and rachel, start to use similar expressions in similar ways that they're doing. they're there post scripts and talking to each other. so there is certainly a consciousness in how they're writing to each other about letters. and as we mentioned, some of the letters from david are clearly in a different handwriting. so we don't know if he was unable to or if he was self-conscious his writing. but he it is obvious that at some point someone else is writing letters, that he's dictating. but then we do also have letters in his hand. so we don't know if he just didn't have someone who could write for him or if he had finally been taking a chance. but when he kind of starts copying some of rachel's styles, that is in his hand. so it is interesting to see him kind of learning from her letter writing technique in his own letters, and then we have one more. can you talk about the mail delivery system during that time? yeah, for the union forces and americans on the union side, it was pretty much business as usual, except for the mail had stopped being exchanged with the confederate states. so for getting mail to p.o.w. is to those who were trying to cross the line. many americans were using the express companies and there was could go through what were called excuse me, flag of truce points where there would be exchanges of goods, including the mail for the walters and their letters pretty were sort of on that timely convention that they were used to of the mail moving fairly rapidly with the strong railway system in the north and through up to the the front that was done through the post office department, working through what they called special agents who were the intermediaries between the post office department and the military in many ways, the military had assigned most of the mail duties to privates and mail who were taking the mail to and from the headquarters. and and that mail moved fairly rapidly. and at sometimes some surprising moments that would be delivered during combat. but we do know that that there times where the walter's do and other americans and the civil war letters do note about the changes in their their mail system. but for the most part, they're they're fairly open in how they talk about the news of the day. they're not censored letters in any way. the soldier's letters are not censored. so anything they off is what they've self-censored. we have one more comment and it is that david and rachel are my great great great grandparents and this has been a wonderful discussion to join. so thank you, lynn and tom. that's wonderful. thank you. thank you. well, thank you for coming to our panel this morning entitled tale of three presidential homes the good, the bad and the ugly. our panel today will discuss identity politics and anti-racist ideology have infected the presidential homes in virginia and also what this movement aims to do to our nation's cherished ideals. but this corruption of history has deep roots in the progressive left's collective mind and the aggressive of this ideology will not in presidenal

Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20181018

the saudis in jamal khashoggi's apparent murder, there is mounting pressure tonight for an american ally to come clean, yet the president has sided with the saudis, speculating that what he called rogue killers could be to blame. when secretary of state mike pompeo was asked about the investigation, he said this -- >> i don't want to talk about any of the facts. they didn't want to either. and that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way. >> he doesn't want to talk about the facts. well, facts matter. the truth matters. especially in this case. and we're learning more tonight about pompeo's meeting with the saudi crown prince. a source tells cnn it was very different behind the scenes. pompeo bluntly telling the prince to get their investigation of khashoggi's disappearance done quickly and to own what happened. secretary of state also reportedly telling the prince his future as king is at stake. but in the face of everything we have learned, the question remains, why is the president still siding with the saudis? i want to bring in now walter shaub and david k. johnson. david is, by the way, the author of "it's even worse than you think what the trump administration is going to america." gentlemen, good evening to both of you. david, you first. one question hanging over the president and why is there hasn't been swift action about khashoggi's apparent killing is if it has anything to do with his personal finances. so i want to listen to the president, him boasting about making millions from the saudis, and then we'll talk about it. >> saudi arabia -- i get along great from all of them, they spend 40 million, 50 million, they buy apartments from me. am i supposed to dislike them? i like them very much. >> so when you see the president's reaction now, david, how much should we take these previous statements into account? >> well, donald certainly likes people who put money in his pocket. there's no question about that, but i think this goes way beyond vinality. donald expressed admiration for murderous dictators like duterte in the philippines. he does not have the empathy of others and respect of law for most americans. that's at core here. he doesn't see something that's morally wrong in this murder, possibly living dismemberment of the victim. >> interesting. walter, i mean, wouldn't a lot of this be cleared up if the president had a fully -- a fully die vested, b, released his tax returns? >> yeah. i mean the original sin of this administration is that president retaining his financial interests, breaking with the tradition of all modern presidents to resolve their conflicts of interest. and having done that, he's made no effort to compensate for that breach of the status quo, by saying i'm going to be more transparent, and i'm going to show you my cards so you know what i have. the thing is, we've given him great power, so the burden is on him to meet the burden of proving to us that he's using power solely for our benefit. and there is so much we don't know because he's been absolutely non-transparent about his financial interest. >> david, trump sold the 45th floor of trump tower to saudi arabia for 4.5 million. that was a little bit ago. >> the trump world tower. that's a different building. >> okay. the trump world tower, right. and then we also know the saudis like to stay at his hotels. another example is a lobbying firm for saudi arabia paid trump's hotel in washington more than $270,000 between october of 2016 and march of 2017. we've seen other reports, too, david. do you think that the president is thinking about these transactions? >> well, he certainly is well inclined toward the saudis as he is to russian mobsters who put money in his pocket. the saudis get that because just this week they actually came through on their promise to put up $100 million to help the fight against isis in syria. that money, which had been due for some time just came this week. so things like that, they do influence him, don. but the larger, more important issue, is that, you know, saudi arabia is a country there is no decent. less than two years ago they beheaded 40 people for a peaceful protest, including a noted cleric. donald dreams about, he mused about being president for life. he talked about admiring people who kill their own citizens. so i really do believe this is a lot more than mere vinality. >> wow. that would be a long time for me to report on this for life. oh my gosh. walter, this is why the founders crafted the amal yumts clause. strict constitutionalist, strict constitutionalists. there are some. many members of the president's party, i should say, they don't apparently don't believe in the emoluments clause or the constitution. >> it's unfrrnt because throughout this administration congress could have stepped in and done some hearings or any kind of active oversight to reign him in. as it stands, a number of groups are having to sue the president to try to get him to comply with the emoluments clause in the constitution which was the original conflict of interest provision that our founders put into the constitution. i do disagree with david a little bit. i think that it's entirely possible that his financial interests are at least one of the motivations going on here. and that's because he has shown us time and again that he's willing to use the presidency for profit. he's actively touted his properties. and every trip he takes there is an advertisement for them. so he's done a lot to hide what his interests are from us. but the little bit we've been able to see has been consistent in his efforts to enrich himself from the presidency. now we have all of this reporting that there's an active stream of money from the saudis to him, where his hotels are basically just a funnel to shove more money down the tube to go straight to him, through this fake, blind trust that he set up. so, i think that the problem is we can't rule out that his financial interests are a factor. and he has certainly fallen short of meeting the burden of proving that it's not. and the burden is on him. >> can i get your response, david, about this washington post reporting president and the saudi royal family searching for an explanation of the death of khashoggi, one that avoids implicates mbs, according to analysts and officials that they've spoken to. the question is why is it simply to -- why are they doing it? simply to maintain the u.s./saudi arms deals? or do you think it's more personal? >> well, first of all, i agree with walter that that's certainly an element in this. you know, here we have the killers based on what we know from turkey are the security guard for mbs. his top security people around him, the top forensic doctor and they don't know who did this? sure, they're trying to come up with an excuse, an explanation. now that it's become a signal. they sent their signal. you're a saudi citizen anywhere in the world, you're not safe if you criticize the regime. secondly, how do they come up with some kind of a story that they can sell that has a patina of credibility in the world. i don't frankly see how they can do it. but with impunity, they do whatever they want in their own country at the very top. look at all of the wealthy retainers who were locked up as prisoners in the palace of the ritz carlton hotel. so, they got a real problem with coming up with a story. and donald trump certainly helped him when he put out this nonsense that they were rogue agents. >> david walter, thank you so much. i appreciate your time. >> thanks. the deputy attorney general is speaking candidly. rod rosenstein says the mueller investigation has proven a widespread effort by russians to interfere in the 2016 election. more on that and what he's saying about his relationship with the president. that's next. 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bleeding if you take certain medicines. get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein giving a full throated defense of the on going investigation of russian interference. good evening. laura, in this interview, rosenstein defends the investigation. he says the investigation is appropriate and independent. let me just read part of it. people are entitled to be frustrated. i can accept that. at the end of the day, the public will have confidence that the cases we brought were warranted by the evidence and that is -- and that it was an appropriate use of resources. is he sending a message? how do you read? >> well, i read it that he is willing to go in direct contrast of what the president of the united states has been saying all along, this is a witch hunt. it's a waste of time and resources. they're unfounded. he's essentially saying that, no, the american people will realize with through the presentation of the evidence, perhaps talking indictments these are issued, perhaps a forthcoming report that everything that they have been able to talk about and been investigating up to this point was warranted. and also talking about the evidence. you don't present evidence of things that have not happened. i suspect there are forthcoming indictments coming after the midterm elections. more importantly, he realizes that his time at the deputy attorney general post may be coming to an end if jeff sessions' job is coming to an end, and he wants to instill the confidence that may not be there if he were to leave. >> interesting. so, julia, i want to read another portion from the "wall street journal" piece. okay? rosenstein says -- i committed i would ensure the investigation was appropriate and independent and reached the right result whatever it may be. i believe i have been faithful to that. so, why do you think rosenstein is doing this interview now? i mean, how do you read it? >> so, one is that there was a story this morning that he was probably reacting to suggesting that there was frustration with the pace of the investigation and that there was going to be some report immediately after the elections. and i think a lot of us read that and thought, where is that coming from? i think part of it he just wants to say, look, these investigations take as long as we need them to take. and if you look at the last two weeks cnn reporting, they're actually moving pretty part. manafort met with the special counsel nine times now. there's grand juries still convening. they're trying to figure out, let's not forget this, what they're trying to get out of president trump. he once said he wanted to testify and now he clearly doesn't want to. i put this in the context of defense in terms of homeland security. i put what he said in the context of what secretary of homeland security said last week, which is that they are monitoring a lot of attempts of hacking and other efforts on state and local election systems. so, what we have to remember is what this investigation is about is russia essentially destroying our democracy, making us not have confidence in it, and that war, so to speak, is continuing. and that this investigation is intended to unearth anyone who helped them but to also name and shame the russians. so, it's not just the legal issue. it's the national and homeland security issue, too. >> what i thought was interesting, laura, you said that you think more indictments are going to be coming. you gave a timeline about it. but dozens of people have sbn charged, some very high profile people connected to the president. and they are cooperating. >> that's true. of course, if you look at the type of cases that had been brought, they fit into different categories. those who were the russian trolls that began with. those trying to insert misinformation to increase divisive rhetoric. part of that people named in those -- that lawsuit, which is of course a talking indictment, not going to get those people back from russia for any reason at any time, but they're talking about americans who may have been of assistance in some way but nobody was ever named. yet you still have the roger stone members and associates and teams who were being brought before grand juries or talked to or subpoenas sought for them. you still have people cooperating, like michael flynn who continues to have his sentencing postponed and michael cohen who is involved in a separate part of the investigation. and of course paul manafort is now -- and of course his own rick gates, former right hand man. so you have all these people who are still on the hook with the collusion investigation and with mueller's probe, who would fit into probably the third category and perhaps the most intriguing and interesting to the american people because those are the people who the government has jurisdiction over, who mueller's team could actually prosecute, not just a talking indictment. so i think you have this category that's out there and looming that is giving more confidence based on rosenstein's own comments about, listen, we will be warranted in the reason why you bring these prosecutions. and that third category has yet to be unearthed. >> uh-huh. she mentioned michael cohen. so jewel yarks let's talk about michael cohen. i wonder how much trouble or maybe how worried the president should be because here is what the reporting is, right -- is that the administration or the president and his people are more concerned. their big concern really is what's happening in the southern district of new york. >> that's right. that would be untouchable by whatever, mostly untouchable by whatever changes might occur to rosenstein. i think for a long time, i guess michael cohen has been demoted to like, you know, caterer. i don't know what he is anymore. >> he's a freelance temp hired by a temp agency. >> right. >> came in to do a little stenography every once in a while. >> that's right. but whatever he was, he actually did have a lot of documents. those have been raided and those have been taken in fbi sweeps. that's going to have a lot of information about the sort of -- the business side of the trump legacy and the institution and the businesses. i will say, don't forget, michael cohen is also mentioned in the steel dossier. michael cohen crosses both boundaries between the financial thing and, of course, the collusion. and so, there's just going to be a lot of evidence. if i could just add one more thing, there's another character, all these ms, michael cohen, mike flynn and now you have don mcgahn, the white house counsel who left the white house today. he has -- we do know by new york times today he met with mueller and talked to them. not clear how much the white house knew about that. he's now free. and he was intimately involved with the beginnings of this, the comey firing and other issues. so there's another player out there who may or may not be -- who we don't know what his allegiance will be or whether he'll start talking. so this thing, you know, it's just -- it unwinds and it's like a web. it just keeps exposing more things. so everyone take a deep breath. this is how investigations are. >> you're right. there's a lot of ms, manafort, mcgahn, michael cohen, michael flynn, mueller. >> that's right. >> wow. >> jared kushner does not have an m. >> middle name could be michael. i don't know what his middle name is. thank you. thank you. president trump promoting a culture of cruelty? a culture of cruelty? my next guest says that for the president supporters, callousness is critical to his success. discover. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. hi. i'm misha. and my favorite bar is crunch. ♪ delicious 100% real chocolate embracing the lightness of crispy rice. crunch. the chocolate bar all americans love. unstopand it's strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. ...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. president trump that has hurled insults to everyone. he has separated immigrant children from their parents at the border. the pattern here, cruelty. let's discuss now. adam is here, alice, barri and amanda. good evening, everyone. so, adam, this is a fascinating column here. let me just read something that you said. it's in the atlantic magazine, by the way, talking about the cruelty we see in president trump's and his supporters. and you wrote, trump's only true skill is the con. his only fundamental belief is that the united states is the birth right of straight, white christian men and really only authentic pleasure is in cruelty. it's that cruelty and the delight it brings them that binds his most ardent supporters to him in shared scorn for those they hate and fear. immigrants, black voters, feminists and treasonist white men who empathize with any of those who would steal their birthright. that is pretty strong. you say it's a shared scorn. but what is this ugliness say about the president and the people who go along with it? >> well, i want to clarify it. i'm talking about the people who go to the rallies and the president holds up a victim of sexual assaults and jeers and mocks her. >> i'm glad you said that because you're not referring to every trump supporters. >> no. i'm talking about a very specific subset of trump voters. and i think that anybody who has ever been the new kid at a school knows how this works. everybody gangs up on you. they're mean to you and they become closer friends and you're the person on the outside. and it's basically that dynamic only it's in national politics. it's something that's embedded in human nature, but until -- until now we haven't had a politician who revels in exploiting that part of human nature. and i think it's taking the country to a dark place. >> adam hits the nail on the head. it reminded me of two words that you see a lot on the internet, and that's liberal tears. like, there's a whole genre of conservative infoaiinment people are trying to make liberals scream and cry. and they laugh about it, right? liberal tears. they laugh as they drink it. the cruelty is the point of that. and it really has gone mainstream in a way that's bigger than the people that just go to trump's rallies. >> yeah. why do you think the president resorts so often to being just mean and mocking and den grading people? >> well, there's a couple of points. the first is, this is the same donald trump that he's been his entire life. so i don't know why we are shocked now. i mean, this is the person we talked about during the campaign trail. he came down the escalator criticizing mexican immigrants and calling them rapists. we can go back in his past and look at his discriminatory practices and look at his father's businesses and those practices. this is the same man who we thought he was. and so, i don't understand the outrage today. that's first. the second thing is, there's an entire generation of americans, especially black americans in this country, a lot of women in this country, a lot of gay americans in this country, who are sitting back and saying, wait a minute, this isn't anything new under the sun. this is the way that we've been treated decade upon decade upon decade. so we're not that long ago. it wasn't that long ago that we were talking about bull conner in 1968. so there's an entire generation. this isn't the nadier. this isn't as dark as it can possibly be. that's second. and third, the only way this stops, me and you, don, we can sit on tv and we can call out the racism, the sexism, the bigotry, the misogamy, but until -- i want to be extremely clear, until white evangelical men have the fortitude to speak out against this behavior, then nothing is going to change. and so, i think those three points kind of summize where we've been. it's a dark place, but we've been to darker places. the resiliency of these people, we keep rising up. >> this is the kind of behavior and rhetoric and tone and tactic that the president is using today as president of the united states. he used while he was a businessman. he used on the campaign trail. he is using today. and, the reality is, a lot of people that voted for him new exactly what they were getting when they voted for him. and he won the presidency any way. i'm not saying it makes it right or it makes it good. that's the reality. and i'm glad that adam pointed out that this -- what he's describing in this piece, it is a very good, very well-written piece. it really shines a light on a really disturbing trend here. but the key is, it is a very, very small facet of trump voters. it is a very -- as he said, it's the very base of who he is. and he says it connects the base. i think it -- >> they are the loudest voices alice. >> a very small sub sect of his supporters. but what really connects trump supporters and republicans and conservatives is the policy. i think while there's a lot of hateful rhetoric and lot of hateful tone out there, what contacts -- the republicans i know and the conservatives i know are the policies that he represents. we don't appreciate the tone and tactic. we appreciate the policies that he's putting forward and executing as president. >> let me ask -- >> but i completely understand that, though. my only pushback to that, alice, is that there are a lot of us who -- first of all, everybody who supports trump is not a bad person. i can't wait to see the clips on other stations -- >> it's always out of context. i don't bother anymore. >> but all trump supporters are not bad people by any stretch of the imagination. >> they're not, bakari. i know where you're going with this. they're not. but they certainly overlook a lot. what does that say? >> they overlook a lot. i don't understand how you overlook misogamy, sexism, racism. i don't understand how you can just sit back and say, you know what, all of that is okay because i'm going to get all of these judges elected or get a tax break. i just think that there is -- that's not what it means to be american. for some reason i feel like you have to stand up to that and say this is not who we are. but because we get a bill passed we pat them on the back. >> that was the point i was -- i wanted to make. maybe adam or amanda can -- because there were, what, how many, 17 or 19 however many people up there on the stage with donald trump who would have probably had very similar, even if not more conservative legislative agendas than he had, but they didn't vote for them. they voted for their cruel person who demeans and diminishes people over someone who is going to do the exact same thing but doesn't speak. ted cruz is by far more conservative donald trump and would have appointed far more conservatives than donald trump. they didn't vote for him. he's a republican. you answer that, amanda. >> yeah. it was an intensely negative election. and instead of being an aspirational party we dove full on into negative partisanship. i think people, republican base, were so dead set against hillary clinton and we can argue about how valid that was or not, they wanted someone who would go at her using all tools on the battlefield, whether they were ethical or not. >> i got to go. stand by, everyone. all right? more reports of possible voter suppression in georgia. we need to talk about this. this time involving a bus full of black citizens on their way to vote. higher! higher! parents aren't perfect, but then they make us kraft mac & cheese and everything's good again. -of course, daniel. -fridge, weather. -clear skies and 75. -trash can, turn on the tv. -my pleasure. -ice dispenser, find me a dog sitter. -okay. -and make ice. -pizza delivered. -what's happened to my son? -i think that's just what people are like now. i mean, with progressive, you can quote your insurance on just about any device. even on social media. he'll be fine. -[ laughs ] -will he? -i don't know. -will he? when you have something you love, ♪ you want to protect it. at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. where life meets legal. with pg&e in the sierras. and i'm an arborist since the onset of the drought, more than 129 million trees have died in california. pg&e prunes and removes over a million trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees can't impact power lines. and since the onset of the drought we've doubled our efforts. i grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly it's heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. what guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. charges of voter suppression have been flying in georgia where democrat stacy abrams and brian kemp are running for governor. on monday, some 40 black residents of a senior living resident center were told to get off a bus taking them to vote. a county clerk reportedly called the center raising concerns about allowing the bus to take residents away from the center in the city of louisville, which is south of augusta. well, the seniors agreed to get off the bus but were eventually able to vote later. so let's discuss now, back with me adam, alice, bakari and amanda. i couldn't believe this story when i read it. but bakari, what do you think when you saw the story? >> you know, what year is this? it's amazing to me the length that some individuals will go, whether or not we're talking about brian kemp in georgia or an organization like alec and voter id. to keep people from exercising their franchise. and i think that especially these voters who had to be pulled off the bus. they are of a generation who understands the value of the right to vote and the price paid. and so i think that a lot of times my friends on the right, my republican friends on the right, play games with this franchise. but there is so much pain and blood and tears and sweat that go into these individuals of color in this generation having to get that right to vote. so that county clerk has another thing coming for her if she thinks they just going to go home. they're not. nothing is going to keep them from the polls. but this is the story that we need to be covering more than what's going on in donald trump's head. because we need to make sure that everyone has access to the ballot box. this is absurd. i mean, what year are we talking about? if you read the article, you would think it's 1963. >> adam, this is the same state where 53,000 voter registration, many of them african-american folks were frozen by the attorney general himself, a candidate for governor against the democrats there astay abrams. kemp, he ordered the registrations held because of slight problems with their paperwork. what is going on here, do you think? >> well, look, this is a country where we make it exceedingly hard to vote. we do that because historically the country of the united states of america has not wanted black people or poor people to vote. so they've thrown up obstacles. no other country in the world does this. no other country deliberately makes it hard to vote or throws all these weird mechanics in there where you might end up disenfranchised on election day because you didn't dot an i or cross a t. this is a feature not a bug. what year is it? it's a couple years where john robert and the supreme court struck down the voters right act. as soon as that happened, it was open season. look, this is a historical tradition. like i said, we deliberately make it hard for people to vote so that particular people don't vote. this is not a surprise. this is the system that the country has chosen to have for itself. it's unjust. it's wrong. >> go ahead, alice. >> in arkansas, the elections were critical importance to the office, as they are of secretary of states across the country. the integrity of voter rolls is critical to free and fair elections. what happened in georgia was an effort to make sure that the voters' names and information was accurate in order to have an accurate election. i don't see why anyone would have a problem to make sure that the right people vote in the right locations and in the right places. and that's -- >> by pulling over a bus, alice? >> no, no no. that's not what she's talking about. she's talking about the registrations. >> i'm talking about the -- >> voter rolls. >> the 53,000 names on the voter rolls. >> the explanation is sometimes the names are hard for people at the clerk of courts office to spell and many instances african-americans have nontraditional names, so they may be spelled wrong. so, so what? that's what i don't understand. >> you don't say so what. make sure it's correct. >> it's a red herring. it's a red herring because -- >> this is a false argument. it's so rare. thank you. because somebody's name is t' shawn that and you get there and your name is t with no apostrow fi shawna. that does not happen. people talk about voter id in the need for voter id. that does not happen. i mean, we're fixing a problem that does not exist. let's open up more elections on saturdays. let's make it a national holiday. thank you. this is -- i understand integrity. i don't know what we're doing. we're prohibiting people from voting. >> amanda, the state official who ordered the elderly people off the bus, the county official, said that it wasn't -- the center wasn't supposed to be political. >> i would like to hear the perspective of someone who was on the bus. it looks bad obviously if a bunch of seniors want to go vote, obviously we want to make it easy for them to go. it wasn't clear this was a planned activity. i understand people are concerned about a bunch of seniors getting on a bus and going to go vote, maybe not coming back by lunch time. i'm open to hearing that argument be flushed out some more. i want to hear from somebody that was there, you know? >> what about the integrity of the voter rolls? >> oh, yeah. listen, we've got to get some kind of consensus in this country on how we have an accepted form of voter id. like, of course, we got to make sure that the people who are voting do live in that district where they're voting and that gets really complicated gerrymandering. i think that's more complicated issue than these exact voter laws. we have to have some kind of consensus. can't show up with no id. it can't be that. you have to jump through 10,000 hoops in order to vote. we have to find a consensus. >> stick around, everybody. we have a lot to talk about. we'll talk about senator ted cruz being heckled in public again. are protests like these effective or feed right into the gop talking points about angry, democratic mobs or as they say democrat mobs. bad grammar. introducing ore-ida potato pay. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this... ...with this. when kids won't eat dinner, potato pay them to. ore-ida. win at mealtime. we distributeus, i'm the owner environmentally-friendly potato pay them to. packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned 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(avo) eyesight with pre-collision braking. standard on the subaru ascent. presenting the all-new three-row subaru ascent. love is now bigger than ever. president and his party have a new favorite talking point, using the term angry mob to try to paint democrats as out of control and a threat. but are they playing right into their hands? >> do you believe in a man lying about his alcohol in front of the senate? do you believe in perjury? >> thank you for expressing your first amendment rights. >> so why do you support a man that abuses women? shame on you, ted cruz. >> god bless you, ma'am. >> shame on you, ted cruz. shame on you, ted cruz! >> that was senator ted cruz being heckled by protesters angry about his support of brett kavanaugh. and it's not the first time that senator ted cruz has taken heat for it. >> we believe survivors. we believe survivors. we believe survivors. >> excuse me. let my wife through. >> we believe survivors. we believe survivors. we believe survivors. we believe survivors. >> a crowd of chanting protesters drove cruz and his wife heidi out of a washington, d.c. restaurant friday. just ask mitch mcconnell if these are backfiring? >> our base is fired up. we finally discovered the one thing that would fire up the republican base. the virtual mob that's assaulted all of us in the course of this process has turned our so is that what this is all about? firing up the base? let's discuss now. adam's back, bakari, and amanda. ama amanda, you worked for ted cruz. this is the second time he's been confronted like this in public. i think he had a good response, kprz yo exercise your first amendment right. >> that's no big deal, that's a day in the life of any public official. you can see he wasn't phased by that. the restaurant thing, ted cruz doesn't care about that. he knows he doesn't take off the senator hat when he goes to have dinner with his wife. like, it's uncomfortable to see. that said when mitch mcconnell is talking ability this backfiring, he's not talking about that. he's talking about the kavanaugh hearings where there were 20 million people, and tay saw protester after protester getting hauled out by the capitol police, interrupting a hearing a lot of people wanted to watch. so i think that's where mitch mcconnell feels they had some success because those hearings in particular, the protesters interrupting over and over again, that did have a galvanizing affect on the base. >> adam, do you think these kind of confrontations play right into the gop's hands? >> i'm not losing sleepover it. this is the united states of america. this is not medieval europe. we don't have to respect the representatives of the crown. if you're an elected official and you don't like people getting mad at you in public, then you should find another job. because as ted cruz said these are people expressing their first amendment rights. and nonviolence is important, but other than that, you're not even required to be polite to these people. they work for you. if people want to get a little heated, a little angry, that doesn't bother me at all. particularly given the history of this country, even going back to founders day these guys were saying horrible things about each other. i think the civility thing is a little overblown. and as far as the president is concerned there are two modes he accepts and anything else he's going to say is illegitimate. >> don, i think the problem with this to amanda's point, look, public officials realize when they're in public office they're going to be questioned on things they do. but taking to the private life in airports and restaurants, and he's not the only one, sarah huckabee sanders were also victims of this, not seeing instances where republican and conservatives are going screaming in the faces of democrats and liberal elected officials because republicans realize if you're angry and you're mad as hell and you don't want to take it anymore you go to the ballot box and vote these people out of office. and if liberals would take their energy and channel it in that direction instead sof screaming it at people they'd be a lot more effective. >> well, we did see that in 2008. >> when the democrats were in power, when president obama was in power it was a tee party screaming and saying -- and they were self-admitted members of an angry mob. they said it themselves. and i don't want this to get misc misc misconstrued, you're right, amanda, it's waffle. no one would want to be in that position, but you are a public official. no one should pea putting their hands on anyone, blocking you, touching your property. but if you're a public official and someone screams something or asks something in public, don't be so oppressionest, answer them or do what ted cruz and say thank you for expressing your first amendment right or i'll tell you how i feel about that the next time i'm on the sen floor or call my office. >> once things get violent and police have to start intervening. >> not right, no good. >> that's when you can't do it. and i think that's the difference with the kavanaugh hearings. listen, i worked on capitol hill. the level of disorder and chaos that has escalated in the past couple of years and stunning. the hundreds and hundreds of people that get arrested. and it really burns me to see celebrities get a pho photo-op arrest that burns me to no end. let's keep that by not abusing it. >> i want to get the sound bite in, but listen to this. this is for you, bakari, watch this. this is the president. >> i need your help this election day, november 6th, to stop the radical democrat mob in their quest for power. the radical democrats have turned into an angry mob. you don't hand matches to an arsonist and you don't give power to an angry left wing mob, and that's what the democrats are becoming. >> real quick, bakari, the hill reporting two republicans have been saying they have been basically attacked in the past few days by people angry at their politics. go on. should this continue? >> conservative tears. look, what you're seeing is you're seeing people expressing their first amendment right. and we were talking about as long as it's not nonviolent, civil disobedience, you're protesting, that's fine. it's not a violent mob. just two years ago we were talking about a rally of donald trump where people were punching people in the face, pushing people that were protesting. that looked more like a mob than anything else. is it going to be beneficial? i think we're looking way too deep in this to see if it's going to have any political repercussions. i'm not sure that's the case. but ted cruz handled it appropriately. if he's at an airport or restaurant and people have a way he's voting, they have a right to voice that and that's what they're doing. so it's uncomfortable, but protest is uncomfortable. >> thank you all. thanks for watching. our coverage continues. 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